


Enemy Within

by larxenethefirefly



Series: Music of Eternity [10]
Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-09 10:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1979061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larxenethefirefly/pseuds/larxenethefirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Rose are transporting the Master to Gallifrey when everything goes wrong. With the Doctor missing and the Master loose, Rose is left to save the world on her own for the first time in centuries. And who is the crazy man that keeps following around Doctor Holloway? A re-write of Eight's movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to lunarsilverwolfstar for the beta!

Rose had wandered into the console room with her copy of _It_ , her finger between the pages as she settled down into her favorite armchair. The Doctor smiled at her as he put the TARDIS in the Vortex. “Still haven’t finished it, I see,” he remarked as she opened the book.

She sighed. “I can never find time to. I barely got through a page before you were called to pick up the Master.” Rose paused and looked at him. “How are you feeling, by the way?”

He shrugged and turned away from her. “Everyone dies, Rose, and he’s cheated death enough times. It was about time it caught up with him.” He bustled about console a bit more before looking at her. “How do you feel about tea?”

“I could use a cuppa,” she said, though her eyes didn’t leave him as he left the room.

He knew she was concerned about him- after all, she knew about his history with the Master more than anyone else- but he didn’t know what to feel. Relief, certainly, and definitely satisfaction- but mostly, he just felt tired. Grief was in there somewhere, mixed in with regret and remorse, but for now he simply wanted sleep.

He returned shortly, carrying the tea set and sitting down in his armchair. Rose thanked him absently as she took the cup, watching him with worried eyes as he dug around in his pockets for _The Time Machine_. The old gramophone that Rose had bought a few years prior on a whim was playing a jazz song, something that the Doctor was trying out. He wasn’t sure if he liked it yet or not, and frequently argued with himself about it, which amused Rose to no end.

It had been a rough century or two for them; it was hard to really keep track, since time was meaningless in the Vortex and Rose had long since given up on a calendar. And ever since Ace… well, companions hadn’t really been a priority. The Doctor had instead agreed to help Romana out, doing errands for Gallifrey and basically playing at messenger boy, giving her his support as she navigated the complex political structure of Gallifrey to be elected President. Rose had helped where she could, of course, but her Doctor’s current form was less open to suggestions than he had been in the past. He didn’t ignore her, per say, but secrets were an artform that he used with precision, and it frustrated her to no end when she found out he had been keeping things from her. 

Dropping the Master off at Gallifrey was, according to him, his last errand for Gallifrey, since he was determined to retire from his life once and for all, still guilty over destroying Ace’s life. Rose had tried to tell him that Ace didn’t blame him, but he was stubborn and had, presumably, picked out a planet where they could relax and lead a ‘quiet, non-interfering life’. Rose had held her tongue and vowed to herself to make a difference, no matter what he said.

Eventually she relaxed; he seemed content for now and she started reading her book again, humming along to the song as she was absorbed into the story.

The sudden tugging at the Bond she and the Doctor shared caused her to look up. He was… worried. There was a feeling in the air that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, and then the TARDIS _screamed_.

Rose fell, her book falling out of her grasp as the time ship tilted, and they both staggered to the console as sparks erupted from the base and the alarm sounded. “What’s going on?” she shouted as the TARDIS pitched to the side again.

“I don’t know!” the Doctor replied. “Sequence eight!”

They worked in tandem until the TARDIS finally stabilized, whining pitifully. The Doctor pulled the monitor down. “Emergency landing… whatever damaged Her must have been severe. Looks like She’s set the destination to Earth.”

Rose hesitated. “Doctor. There’s… I think that whatever hurt Her is onboard.”

He noticed a trail of grey sludge and paled. “The Master,” he said and they raced from the room.

She dodged around an intricate grandfather clock and entered ‘the shrine room’ as she had dubbed it when the Doctor had changed the TARDIS theme one day when he was bored. They hadn’t discovered all the rooms yet, since with the theme change also came new rooms and hallways; last week she had found a room full of nothing but trampolines, which had been fun at first but annoying to get out of.

The candles flickered eerily as they approached the table where the Doctor had stored the Master’s remains. The box- the Gallifreyan Stasis Chamber, which the Doctor and Romana both had sworn couldn’t be broken- was cracked, the urn shattered, and clearly the origin of the grey sludge.

“Oh, no,” Rose said, softly. “He’s…”

The Doctor looked at her, eyes wild with fear and anger, and they were once more running to the console room. If the Master had somehow possessed the TARDIS… no wonder She had to make the emergency landing. She was probably fighting the Master’s control, and the sooner they repaired Her, the better.

“He’s inside the mainframe, but he can’t do much,” the Doctor said as the pulled up the diagnostics. “Rose, I need you to help land the TARDIS. I’m going to try and isolate him in the system so that he’ll be contained while I get parts to repair the TARDIS.”

“We’re heading to 1999,” she said as the TARDIS bucked slightly. “Not much in way of dimensional technology.”

“I’ll make do,” he replied. “The TARDIS can fight him for however long we need, and the engineers on Gallifrey can take care of the rest.” He looked at her and his expression softened. “I’ll only be gone an hour, two at the most.”

“I’m coming with you,” she said stubbornly.

“You need to monitor his position,” he shot back. “If he connects with the telepathic circuits-”

“The TARDIS is more than capable of defending Herself, and if we split up we can get the necessary supplies a lot faster,” Rose retorted. 

The Doctor paused and gripped her shoulders. Though he was half a foot shorter than his previous body, he was still an inch taller than her, and his personality seemed to add even more inches. “Rose, please, stay on the TARDIS. I have a bad feeling about this, and I can’t do scans with the TARDIS running on emergency power. And for all his faults I know the Master will never deliberately hurt you. Please, Rose. Just wait here until I get back.”

The fear and worry pulsing through their Bond made her pause. She knew that there was something he wasn’t telling her, but the fact that he was begging… she nodded mutely. He gave a small, tight smile before pressing his lips briefly to hers and running back to the monitor.

Rose initiated the landing sequence, the TARDIS landing with a pathetic whine. The lights instantly flickered and died, the eerie green glow of emergency lighting lining the console and floor. The Doctor raced to the door and grabbed his hat before opening the doors and stepping outside. 

Rose paced by the console, her heart hammering. There was something… off. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it seemed like this had been planned. By the Master or the Daleks or - stars forbid- the Guardians, but there was an annoying prickling sensation under her skin that meant that things were worse than she imagined. 

The monitor flashed, and she quickly moved towards it. The Master was leaving the TARDIS, but due to the near-darkness she couldn’t see where. Too late, she realized he was heading towards the door, and before she could stop him (how? she wondered. All she had on her was her bare hands and an empty flower pot near the doors) the sludge wriggled up the doors and through the lock.

Rose swore softly and jerked the doors open. Instead of seeing sludge, however, she saw a wet, dirty alleyway, a young Chinese boy talking on a mobile… and the Doctor, lying on the ground, blood already soaking through his jacket.

“No, no, no,” she cried, barely remembering to close the TARDIS door behind her as she knelt on the ground beside him. “Doctor, what happened, why are you…!”

“Stop...” the Doctor gasped before he passed out. The wound wasn’t life-threatening, but from the position she was terrified it had caused severe damage, if not damaged his right heart. She pressed her hands into the wound, vision going blurry with tears.

“Stay with me Doctor, please,” she begged as the ambulance pulled up. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this, you promised you’d be safe…”

“Ma’am?” one of the paramedics asked. “I’m going to have to ask you to step away from him. He’s injured.”

“Do you know him?” the other asked as they got the gurney ready. The Chinese boy was shifting impatiently, clearly wanting to be elsewhere. 

“He’s my husband,” she gasped, shaking. “You can’t take him, he’s… he’s got a heart condition, your doctors won’t know how to treat him…”

The paramedic smiled. “We have the best in the nation, ma’am. We’ll take good care of him. You’re welcome to ride in the ambulance, though.”

“Can I come?” the boy asked, suddenly. “It’s… it’s my fault he was shot.”

The paramedic hesitated. “We don’t have much room…”

Rose grabbed the boy’s arm and towed him toward the ambulance. “No, he knows what happened, I’m not letting him out of my sight.” Her eyes never left the Doctor’s figure as he was lifted onto the gurney and stashed into the ambulance. Though she was terrified of what they would find, she also knew that he needed help, and soon. With the TARDIS on emergency power she couldn’t get him to the medbay, and the nearest UNIT clinic was hundreds of miles away. Superior biology or no, he was losing blood too fast and he wouldn’t survive the drive there. 

The boy followed along after her, unable to say no. His sneakers splashed into a puddle; distracted, he didn’t even notice the puddle congealing and slithering along behind him.

Rose and the boy crowded into the back of the ambulance behind the paramedic, and he instantly began working. “What happened?” Rose demanded, gripping the Doctor’s free hand in his own.

The boy shifted, uneasily. “My friends and I… we’re part of a gang. We were taking a shortcut to get home when we ran into one of our rivals doing a drug deal, but before we could run they saw us. Their driver chased us down the alleyway before we managed to lose him by hopping a fence, but the others had went around and cut us off. We tried running away, but ended up at a dead end. That’s when…” he paused, and frowned. “That’s when that weird box appeared, and your husband got out. The other gang opened fire and killed my friends and shot your husband, but I was behind the box, and was saved.”

Despite her terror and fear, Rose smiled a tiny bit. Trust the TARDIS to land in a place where She would save someone’s life.

“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to fill out his information,” the paramedic interrupted. “We can’t treat him otherwise.”

“I’ve already told you, he’s not like your normal gunshot victims,” she snapped. “Look, there’s a place called UNIT, just let me get a hold of them-”

“We’re already heading to the hospital, and the longer you refuse to do the necessary paperwork, the more chances he has of bleeding out,” the paramedic said reasonably, but he was clearly agitated.

Common sense finally won over. Rose took the pen and began filling it out.

When they got to the hospital, Rose and the boy were shown to a waiting room as the Doctor went into surgery. Despite Rose’s pleas to go with him, the nurse effectively contained her until Rose finally collapsed into the chair.

She leapt up again and began pacing. “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” the boy said, awkwardly. “There didn’t seem to be serious damage…”

“What’s your name?” Rose asked.

“Er… Chang Lee, but most people call me Lee,” he replied.

“Listen, Lee, the Doctor isn’t normal,” Rose said. “He’s not human, he’s from a race called the Time Lords. He has two hearts and a respiratory bypass, and if they don’t know that, they could kill him. Or worse, they do find out, and keep him for observation and testing. I’ve already seen countless people try to dissect him because of his biology. I’m not going to let them hurt him more!”

She tried the door but, unfortunately, it was locked. Rose collapsed against the wall in defeat, swearing as she glared at the door.

After a time, a doctor entered. “Mrs. Smith?” he asked and Rose sprang up. “Your husband seems to have a heart condition, so we’re calling in the cardiologist. He’ll be put under general anesthesia while she does a basic scan, so there won’t be any surgery involved.”

Rose grabbed his arm. “What? No. No, you can’t do that, he’s different, the cardiologist doesn’t know how to treat it. You’ll kill him!”

The doctor smiled soothingly. “I assure you, we have the best doctor in the nation, and she hasn’t lost a single patient yet. Look, we have an observatory, you can watch and see for yourself. But if you can prove your identity, we can take your word into consideration and possibly… delay the surgery.”

Rose paused. “I… I don’t have any identification.”

“Wedding rings?”

“We… didn’t get any. We eloped,” Rose replied.

The doctor gave a polite smile. “Well, ma’am, without proof of identity we can’t take your… advisement into consideration. But if you follow me, I’ll be happy to lead you to the observation room.”

~*~

Out in the parking lot, the abandoned ambulance continued to flash its lights and reports still came in through the radio. Had anyone been around to hear, they would have noticed sudden static over the channel and sparks erupting from the pedals. The congealed puddle from before had grown slightly, feeding off the electrical impulses in the engine, and slithered from the front of the vehicle to the back, where an empty EMT uniform jacket sat. It found an empty pocket and settled in to wait.

~*~

Meanwhile, doctor Grace Holloway raced down the hallways, breathless from the race up four floors and the taxi ride from the opera. 

“What’s the situation?” she demanded as she burst into the surgery. She threw her heels at a nurse and grabbed a hood, slinging it on as she reached for a pair of sneakers that another person was handing her. 

“Fibrillation at three hundred,” her operating partner, doctor Salinger, replied as the nurses helped her get ready. 

Grace shot him an incredulous look. “Three hundred? No blockages showing?”

“No.”

She shook her head and finished washing her hands. “What about x-rays?”

“Double exposed every time we tried,” Salinger replied. “We can use another machine, but it’ll be about a half hour…”

“We don’t have time for that,” Grace interrupted. “We’ve got to get moving on this.” Three hundred! It was a miracle he wasn’t dead yet.

Salinger trailed after her as she donned her coat. “We have a woman claiming to be his wife here. She keeps insisting that it’s a natural anomaly, that he’ll be fine if we just release him to her.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “Probably terrified of the bill. How old is she?”

“Appears in her mid-twenties. The patient is in his forties, so she probably married him for money. Poor bastard. She doesn’t have any identification though, nor wedding rings or any other proof. Probably lying for some reason.”

“Regardless, I’m going to save this man’s life,” Grace said. “Is he stable?”

“For now, yes.”

One of the nurses approached. “It’s Brian,” she said, holding out a phone. She pressed it to Grace’s ear as she walked towards the surgery room.

“Yes, Brian, sorry,” Grace said breathlessly at the angry tones of her boyfriend. “Listen, I’m on call. What did you expect me to do, ignore it?” He ranted at her and she frowned. “No. No, Brian, don’t say that. Listen, just wait until I get home… Brian?” She huffed when she realized he had hung up, threw up her hands, and stormed into the room.

She and her team quickly prepped the patient for the scan, and the nurse obligingly put on Grace’s preferred operating music. “Puccini. Madame Butterfly,” the man on the table said, restlessly, before his eyes popped open. “Whatever you’re about to do, please stop,” he begged.

Grace stared. He was supposed to be under anesthesia. “Mister Smith, you’re going to be all right,” she said soothingly. 

He shook his head. “No. I’m not like you. I’m not human.” Then he looked terrified. “Rose. Where’s Rose? Is she alright?”

Grace glanced at Salinger before turning back to her patient. “Rose is fine, Mister Smith. She’s terrified about you, so why don’t you calm down so we can finish and tell her all is fine, hmm?”

“I need a beryllium atomic clock,” the man insisted, trying to move off the table. Everyone lunged to keep him in place. “This is 1999, isn’t it?”

“Anesthesia, now,” Salinger ordered. The nurses wrestled a mask on the patient even as he fought against them.

“Try not to speak, Mister Smith,” Grace said, trying to keep her voice calm. She was frightened for him- the heartrate was still wild, and if he didn’t calm down it would get worse. “We’ve already taken out all the bullets, and now we’re going to listen to your heart, find out why it’s so wild, and then I’m going to fix it. You’ll see Rose in a few hours, I promise.”

When he appeared asleep she sighed. “He’s under. Curtis, I need…”

The man shot up again, once again startling everyone. “Timing malfunction! The Master is out there, tell Rose to stop him, he needs to be stopped…!”

This time when the nurses put the mask on him, he stayed under. Shaken, Grace gave her partner a weak smile. 

“Something tells me Rose was right when she said he wasn’t normal.”

~*~

Rose was pacing nervously in the viewing room, chewing on her fingernails, a habit she had thought that she had broken nearly a century ago. She had seen the Doctor fighting the doctors, had heard his protests, and it had taken everything she had to remain where she was. If she fought them it would only make things worse, and though the Bond they shared was quiet, it was still glowing brightly. He wasn’t in danger of regeneration… yet. She had put on the form that he was allergic to aspirin, but she wasn’t sure how he would react to the anesthesia they were giving him. He was fighting it, clearly, and she was trying to send him comforting thoughts, but for some reason he was blocking her. Was it an automatic defense, or something else?

She whirled as the door opened and a man led in a group of people… investors, since their clothes were too nice for medical students. “You must be the wife of the patient,” the man leading them said charmingly after he had finished explaining what was going on below to the newcomers. He had introduced himself as the hospital director. “I assure you, everything will be fine.”

Rose glared. “And if you would have just listened to me and let him leave, you wouldn’t have to worry about what might go wrong,” she shot back, then turned back to the window as she watched the doctors below.

The investors looked confused and the man smiled sympathetically at them. “Worried family members. They’re all the same.” They laughed politely and settled.

~*~

Grace frowned at the video feed of the probe. It had been hard to get in, since the man’s skin was thicker than normal, but eventually she had succeeded. “That’s odd. Where am I?” Surely she had just seen this? She wiggled the probe a bit. It seemed to be responding...

“Sub-clavian,” Salinger said after looking at the video.

The frown deepened. “I should be in the broncheo-cephalic.” The diagram of the heart was clear in her head. But this man’s heart was nothing like she had seen.

“Not unless this man’s a donkey,” her partner commented, and the nurses laughed.

Her mind toyed with the memory of the patient insisting that he wasn’t human, that Rose was really his wife and Grace should have listened to the demand to leave him be, but she shook them off. The probe was probably loose; it wasn’t unheard of. “I’m probably lost. Here, let me try something.”

She shoved the probe in further, hoping that it would help; instead of the probe going further into the heart, however, the patient suddenly seized, knocking over the instrument tray and thrashing on the table.

“Seizure! Get the probe out!” Salinger shouted. 

“I’m trying!” she replied, only to watch as the screen went black. “Damn it!”

“We’re dropping off fast!” one of the nurses panicked.

“Grace, he’s flat-lining,” Salinger exclaimed, fear lacing his voice.

“The probe’s snapped. It’s still in him!” she yelled, staring at the broken instrument in horror.

He shoved her aside as he grabbed the AED. “Clear!”

He shoved the paddles onto the man’s chest, who arched from the electricity- the heart monitor, however, still flat-lined. He tried again, but this time the man screamed before going utterly limp.

Above them, in the observation room, Rose screamed along with him.

“Time of death... ten oh three,” Grace’s partner said quietly in the sudden stillness.

Grace was shaking. She had never lost a patient before, ever. Five years of practice, hundreds of surgeries… “I got lost. I want to see his x-rays now!” she shouted, and stormed from the room.

“Grace!” Salinger shouted, but she ignored him. She needed answers, and she had a wife to console.

What the hell had just happened?


	2. Chapter 2

Rose had been led to the office and when Grace arrived she saw red. “What the hell did you do?” she shouted. “I told you to leave him be, and you’ve killed him! He isn’t normal, but you stupid apes were too thick and stubborn to listen!”

“Ma’am, please, just calm down,” Grace said, the woman’s tear-streaked face causing guilt to surge through her. Five years. Five years and no deaths… until now. What had happened? “I did all I could, but your husband must have had a reaction to the anesthetics.”

Rose glared. “I could have told you that.”

“You said in the forms that he wasn’t allergic,” the nurse that had followed Grace up said nervously.

“That was before I knew you were going to stick something in his chest!” Rose snapped. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. “I knew this would happen. Ever since the malfunction…” She shook, curling her arms around herself.

Grace frowned. “Your husband did say something about a… timing malfunction?”

“We were going home to deliver the remains of the… his friend, who had recently died,” Rose said, dully. She slumped down in one of the chairs. “We… ran into trouble with our transport. He said… he said he wouldn’t be long, that he just had to get some parts to fix it, but then he…” Why was she so cold? Surely they wouldn’t keep the hospital freezing… “I don’t even know if he’ll regenerate, he’s allergic to aspirin for time’s sake, how was I supposed to know this would happen…”

Grace moved to her side. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Smith. I was told that the x-rays were double-exposed, and I got lost during the surgery. I should have pulled out and consulted you further, but his heart rate was too fast and I was worried that he was going into hypovolemic shock. By all rights he should have been dead from his heart rate alone.”

“It wasn’t double-exposed,” Rose said, quietly. She was numb, distant- her mind was frantically searching for the Bond, searching for the Doctor’s mind. But all that existed was a roaring, black emptiness. Without even realizing it, her hand reached up to grab the Bonding pendant. “He was born with two hearts. I tried getting the paramedics to bring him to UNIT… they have a doctor there who knows how to treat him.”

Grace felt the guilt dig deeper. “I am sorry, Mrs. Smith. I didn’t know.”

Rose swallowed. “It’s not your fault. You would’ve thought I was barmy if I said it; the other doctor certainly did. When… when can I collect his body?” Oh, god, she would have to see him like that, dead and still and… her mind rebelled, and she whimpered. He couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t.

“Tomorrow morning. The… the morgue is closed right now.” 

Grace hesitated as she watched Rose curl in on herself. She needed a distraction. “That necklace… what is it?”

Rose looked down and pried her fingers from the object. “It’s… he gave it to me, the day we got married. He’s not one for tradition, but in this case… it’s just as good as any ring. He told me what it meant, once, but I never could pronounce his language properly.” Tears welled in her eyes. “He promised forever. How can I…” she sobbed, leaning into Grace, who wrapped her arms around her consolingly.

A nurse creeped into the room and placed a bag on Grace’s desk- Mr. Smith’s items, then. His wife would probably want them.

“Mrs. Smith…”

“Rose. My… my name is Rose.”

“Rose. I... have your husbands things,” Grace said softly. “You’re free to go. I know I wouldn’t want to stay here if… well…” she floundered.

Rose swallowed. “I don’t have anywhere to go. We weren’t even supposed to be here, it was an emergency landing, and he said… he promised two hours… I shouldn’t have let him go alone!”

“There’s a hotel across the street that you can stay at,” Grace said quietly. “Don’t worry about money; I’ll pay myself if I have to.”

Rose nodded shakily and stood. Grace paused. “That boy that was with you. Do you know him?”

“He… he helped me when the Doctor got shot,” Rose said numbly. “I don’t know him. He was just… a kind soul.” _And_ , a dark place in her mind answered, _the reason the Doctor was shot_.

Grace showed her to the door. “The morgue opens at seven tomorrow, if you want to get him then.”

Rose didn’t respond, merely walked out the door in a haze.

Lee had joined her at one point. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked. “Look, it was a few bullets, the people here are probably the best…”

“He’s dead,” Rose whispered, then repeated, angrily, “He’s dead.” She whirled and glared at him. “He’s survived dictators, civil wars, poison… no, all it took was some useless boy to get him killed!” She squeezed her eyes shut. “He isn’t there, Lee. He’s supposed to be...forever. We promised each other forever.”

Lee hesitated, unsure of what to do. He wasn’t a stranger to death- he had seen more than one friend and ally gunned down by rival gangs- but confronting that aftermath… this was why he had joined the gang in the first place, really. He claimed it was freedom, but really he was terrified of responsibility. And it wasn’t like he had any family to go home to.

Well he might not have been ready for life, but life was clearly out to get him. He felt the familiar panic set in. “Listen, why don’t I help you get back home, or… or something.” 

“Grace said I could stay in the hotel.” She was weary again, so Lee walked with her across the street and into the hotel. It was a decent place, definitely not five-star or anything, but it would take a year’s worth of allowance for him to afford one night there. Rose didn’t seem to remember his presence, simply accepted the key card and wandered towards the elevator. After a brief hesitation, Lee followed.

“You sure you’re going to be alright?” he asked when Rose entered the room. He eyed the bag that she had been clutching like a lifeline. He had seen a good amount of credit cards in the wallet; that would keep him fed for the next month, at least, maybe more.

He felt a twinge of guilt; after all, he was responsible for this woman’s grief. But her words outside the hospital had stung and he wanted to lash out. He might be pathetic, but he wasn’t useless. 

Rose didn’t reply, merely walked into the bathroom. Seconds later, he heard the water running.

Quickly, he opened the bag. He frowned. A yo-yo, some sort of fob watch with a silver chain, and a weird metal tool as well as the wallet. The yo-yo was useless, but he could probably sell the tool to a mechanic and the watch could be pawned. The wallet, his main prize, was shoved into his jacket pocket along with everything else, and he left the room while Rose was otherwise distracted. 

He knew the shops would be closed, but first thing tomorrow he could get a bit of extra cash. Maybe for once he wouldn’t go to bed hungry.

What Lee didn’t realize was that a silver chain had gotten tangled with the watch, and he had grabbed the TARDIS key as well.

~*~

Rose had cried for what seemed like hours in the shower. When she finally pulled herself together and crawled out she was grateful that Lee had left. She felt bad for yelling at the boy- it really wasn’t his fault that the TARDIS had landed there- but the aching emptiness inside her was making it hard to think straight. The power of the Key was within her grasp, sure- but with the Master at large and Rose unsure of what he was up to, she was reluctant to use it. For all she knew it would alert him to her current location and, with the state she was in, Rose wouldn’t be able to fend him off.

Assuming she would want to. 

Rose had never been the type of person to depend on another person to the point of reliance. But then she had never fallen in love and lived with them for centuries, either, and established a permanent telepathic bond.

When her parents had died Rose had been crushed, but her world hadn’t ended. She only had sixteen years with them, half which she could barely remember, and even now she barely remembered their faces, their voices. But she had continued on, worked through her grief, and made a life for herself.

She had dated around, but even then she hadn’t really developed any real attachment. Mickey had perhaps been the closest (and hadn’t that been a treat, him not even realizing she had left with the Doctor until hours later, and by then it had been too late), and while she would have been content with him, there wasn’t the same unfathomable pull she had towards the Doctor. Even when he had the bowler haircut and that ridiculous recorder, she had known that her life was with him, would always be with him.

They had discussed the possibility of their eventual deaths, of course they had. Despite Rose being a segment of the Key to Time, she wasn’t immortal; any fatal wound would kill her, and she was aging, albeit slowly. And the Doctor was burning through his regenerations faster than he ought, so it was only practical that they broached the topic of that ephemeral ‘what if’. But it had always been that- ‘what if’. ‘What if’ centuries from now he finally reached his last body? ‘What if’ one day Rose finally couldn’t run anymore, or moved too slow?

She had told herself that she would be ready, that she would have seen it coming. Now she realized how stupid that really was. 

Because ‘what if’ had become ‘right now’, and nothing could have prepared her for his loss.

She crawled into bed, tears once more falling as she remembered his good-natured complaints the night before as she was curled up next to him. When had she started taking those moments for granted?

Rose fell asleep before she could find the answer.

~*~

In the hospital’s mortuary, near the disused wing that had been damaged in an earthquake a few months back, Pete Jennings settled into his chair with a bowl of popcorn and Frankenstein playing on the projector. It was an old favorite of his, the one movie his grandmother would agree to watch with him, and he had kept up the tradition even after she had died. Ted had laughed when he found out, but Pete had ignored him. The man got to work the day shift, he didn’t need distractions.

The movie had just gotten to the good part when Pete heard banging. “Ted, knock it off!” he shouted, grumbling. “Just because I couldn’t go to the party doesn’t mean you should rub it in…”

He paused. The banging was coming from one of the chambers. The chamber he had stored one John Smith in, in fact. “Ted, seriously, cut it out.”

The doors fell off, revealing a man shivering in nothing but a sheet. 

Pete fainted.

~*~

He didn’t know who he was or where he was, or even what he was supposed to be doing. All he knew was that he was in a small, dark, cold room, and his hearts- hearts? yes, two hearts, and a… respiratory bypass, yes, that’s what it was called- had seized with terror. He was also unfathomably sad, but he couldn’t remember why. 

The door had been easy to break and, as he had crawled out, he had seen another man standing there before turning white and collapsing. He paused. Was that normal? No, the man was terrified, he could… yes, smell the fear hormone, the sweat and… was that popcorn? He was starving.

Who was he?

There was a movie playing on the television but he ignored it, something in his mind telling him to find… someone. Blonde, he remembered. And something about… Puccini? He shook his head, stuffing more popcorn into his mouth before wandering out the door.

He had a name… didn’t he? Surely he did…

He looked down. Ah, there, a tag. _John Smith_. It didn’t… feel right, but that’s what the tag said, so it must be right. He mouthed it, then said it. “John Smith.” Oooh, was that his voice? Nice and deep, his voice. He frowned. Wasn’t it supposed to sound different?

Oh, wait, clothes. Yes. It was rather cold, wasn’t it?

He pulled the sheet around him better and wandered down the corridor, hoping he would find someone soon.

~*~

Ten miles away, in a small one-bedroom apartment, Miranda Russo couldn’t sleep. 

Her husband, Bruce, was snoring again. He only did it when he pushed himself too hard, and she had begged and pleaded for him to lighten his schedule. He refused to do so- “How am I supposed to support us, Mira, if I don’t work?” She loved him for it, of course she did, but nights like tonight- when he snored loud enough to wake the dead- she wondered if it wouldn’t be easier.

“Shut up, Bruce, please,” she groaned, knowing he couldn’t hear her.

Across the room, Bruce’s EMT jacket shuddered and slowly, a serpent-like trail of grey gel oozed out of the sleeve. It rippled on the floor for a second before turning gaseous and trickled across the floor to Bruce’s side of the bed. He breathed the gas in gradually, letting it settle inside him; only when the last of it had been inhaled did he snort and roll over, finally, mercifully silent.

Miranda sighed in gratitude and pulled the covers more firmly around her. Maybe now she’d get some sleep.

~*~

Rose woke up with a blinding headache and a confused image of Frankenstein combined with the smell of popcorn, which was a rather unusual symptom when she fell asleep crying. At least the headache was familiar. She shook her head groggily, the clock showing it was barely six in the morning. Less than five hours of sleep, then. The TARDIS had landed around nine at night, and she hadn’t left the hospital until one… Bile rose in her throat and she was soon throwing up, bent over the toilet as her vision blurred once more. When she was through, she used the sink water to rinse her mouth before dragging herself to the shower in an attempt to make herself look decent. 

Even with the water heat cranked all the way up, though, she still felt cold. She shivered as she scrubbed herself and stared as her skin turned red. She blinked in confusion. She could feel the water’s scorching temperature, so why did she…?

No. The cold was coming from… 

She squeezed her eyes shut and tentatively reached for the place her Bond with the Doctor resided, and she was greeted by the faintest wisp of his presence. Joy surged through her. He was alive! He had regenerated after all! She nearly cried again, but this time out of joy. Instead, she finished with the shower hurriedly and got dressed, ignoring the way the water in her hair soaked through her thin shirt. She could worry about decency later. The Doctor was alive!

Rose grabbed the paper bag that contained his things and raced out the door. So lost in elation and the need to see her Doctor again, she didn’t even realize that it was lighter.

~*~

Grace awoke groggily, blinking as she took in her surroundings. Right- she was still at the hospital. She had collapsed on her couch when she had gotten too tired to continue, researching everything she knew about case studies where the patient had two hearts. There wasn’t much- there was always the possibility that he was a chimera, but it was always small things, like two sets of reproductive systems or two blood types, not two hearts. He shouldn’t even be alive. Grace winced. Okay, not the best term to use, considering that she had just killed him. The guilt instantly came back and she sighed, running her fingers through her hair as she dragged herself to her closet to change into a fresh pair of clothes.

After washing her face and re-applying makeup, Grace moved to her coffee machine and answered emails while it brewed. She wasn’t surprised to see the request for a medical review- she knew Rose wouldn’t press charges, she didn’t seem to be that sort of person, but the insurance company was still demanding an explanation in case it did happen. She promised to have the incident report in by tomorrow.

She was once again looking over the x-rays, trying to figure them out, when Pete Jennings, the night attendant at the morgue, rushed in. “There’s been a break-out,” he said, breathlessly.

Grace stared at him. “What?”

“The, er, man you, er… he broke out of his unit last night. Scared me half to death.”

She scoffed. “You’ve been watching too many horror films, Pete. You probably fell asleep and dreamed it up.”

“That’s what I thought, but when I woke up the doors were still off their hinges.”

She paused. “Show me.”

~*~

Rose ran into the hospital and made a beeline to the desk assistant. “I need to speak with Grace Holloway immediately.”

“Do you have an appointment?” the assistant asked.

“No, but she killed my husband last night, so I think I have a right to see her,” Rose snapped. She was jittery, nervous, excited, confused… she had tried to contact the Doctor though the Bond, but it was like he was blocking her still. She didn’t know why, but it made her more desperate to see him. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been rude to the desk clerk, but when it came to the Doctor, Rose would always put him first. 

The desk assistant paled at Rose’s remark. “Right. I’ll just...” She grabbed the phone and dialed the extension, waiting for a moment before smiling nervously. “She doesn’t seem to be in her office, ma’am. Do you want to wait?”

“No. Where’s the morgue?” _Please let him be there, please oh please_ ….

“Take the hallway there, and the elevators will be on your right. It’s the button marked ‘B’,” the girl said and Rose raced away.

She waited impatiently for the door to open and darted inside as quickly as she could. She didn’t even see the man in auburn curls wearing a white shirt and trousers darting across the hall.

~*~

He needed clothes and the place he had stumbled upon had served him nicely. There had been so many options- a scarf that looked familiar but wrong, something that had a… gun, yes, that was the word, and no, no guns.

He didn’t like guns. Why? He didn’t know. But guns weren’t good.

Eventually, he found a nice pair of trousers and a white oxford, and across the hall there was a velvet jacket and a cravat. The velvet was an instinctual grab. He knew that someone liked velvet. He frowned. Who did? Again he got a flash of blonde and the feeling of rightness, but the more he tried to remember the more the feeling faded.

He sighed. Well, he ought to remember sooner or later. He stuffed the tag with his name in it in his pocket and wandered down the hallway. He was tired and the chair looked like a good place for a nap.

~*~

After Bruce had stopped snoring, Miranda had slept peacefully and when she awoke she saw her husband staring out the window. “I must find the Doctor,” he was mumbling. “This body won’t last long. I need the Doctor’s body.”

Miranda blinked, yawned, and crawled out of bed. “A sense of humor and no more snoring? You must be in a good mood. Come on, honey, back to bed. You don’t need a doctor.” A sly smile crossed her face. “Not unless you agree to be nurse.”

“My name isn’t honey,” her husband grumbled.

She raised her eyebrows and walked over to him. “Oh? What do you want to be called, then?” She hadn’t seen him this frisky since their seventh anniversary. Nice to know he could be young again.

Her husband paused and when he replied there was a dark promise in his voice. “Master will do.”

Miranda grinned and hugged him from behind, speaking in what she hoped was a seductive tone. “Well then, come back to bed, _Master_.”

She felt her husband turn, but when she looked at his eyes, she knew the man standing before her was not him. His eyes were… She screamed and fell back, but his hand had gripped her throat, crushing her windpipe.

The man formally known as Bruce Russo sighed and blinked, his green, snake-like eyes focussing on the woman in front of him. He shushed her until she stopped moving, and when he released her only a dried out husk remained. 

He shook himself as her lifeforce flowed through him. There. That would keep him alive for just a bit longer.

“Oh, Doctor,” the Master hissed, taking stock of his new body. “Soon, I will have all your lives.”

~*~

Grace stared at the wreckage that had been unit two. “That’s not possible.”

“Well it’s not like they were built to contain people who were alive,” Pete scoffed. “But there he was, naked as a corpse and staring at me. Funny thing was, it wasn’t the same guy.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “You probably saw the body snatcher.”

“He was wearing a shroud with a JS toe tag,” Pete insisted.

She sighed. “Somehow, I don’t think the second coming happens here.”

“Right. You think he went to a better hospital?” he exclaimed. “I’m going home.”

She frowned. “Hey, Pete? Go by psychiatric and pick up more life-altering drugs while you’re at it,” Grace told him sarcastically.

He glared. “I’ll do that.”

~*~

Rose rushed into the mortuary. “Hello? Anyone here?”

There was silence. She looked in the office, but other than a bowl of nearly-eaten popcorn, there was nothing. She walked further in, ignoring the ‘keep out’ signs, and saw the broken doors. “Oh, he was here alright,” she grumbled as she turned around. “If I knew he was going to play hide-and-go-seek, I would have brought jelly babies.”

~*~

He looked around the hospital nervously. His mind was… fuzzy. Ever since his nap he had tried remembering how he got here, but he just remembered vague images. Blue, pink, tears… Puccini? There was something… wrong. _Neural_ implosion, his mind offered, but he didn’t know how that was possible or what it was. 

There- a voice. Female. She was talking about body snatchers and… someone named Rose? That should be familiar. It was familiar. _Home safety forever forgiveness belonging_ …. but he couldn’t remember who or what Rose was. 

“We don’t need to call the cops yet, Curtis,” the man the woman was speaking too said to another. He turned back to the first woman. “Grace, give me some time.”

Time. There was something about…

The clock. 11:57, it read. AM, judging from the Earth’s current rotation and position. He blinked. He could feel the earth moving, and his mind calculated trajectory and speed and the tilt of the axis… He staggered against the wall, his mind revolting. Time. A clock garden, combined with a mechanical hum. _Home_.

Time! He was running out of time!

But… why?


	3. Chapter 3

Grace walked into her office followed by the hospital director, Michael Swift. The phone was ringing and she picked it up. “Hello?”

“Doctor Holloway? A Rose Smith is here to see you.”

Grace sighed. “Yes, send her up. Thank you.”

Swift was staring at the x-rays. “Two hearts. No wonder you got lost.”

“Exactly,” Grace said, frustrated. “A medical miracle and an insurance nightmare, and now his body is missing and his wife is furious!”

Swift looked concerned. “Wife?”

“The woman in the observation room when you were giving your VIP tour,” Grace replied. “She’s coming to collect her husband’s body today, and now I have to tell her that I not only killed him, I was responsible for his disappearance.”

Swift considered this, then grabbed the x-ray. “Maybe this was a double exposure, and the wife can be… persuaded. Regardless, I’m going to do what I have to.” He pulled out his lighter and lit the x-ray on fire.

“No!” Grace shouted. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t afford to lose you,” Swift replied, firmly. “So I’m getting rid of the evidence.”

Grace groaned. “Am I having a bad dream here? I lose a patient and his body, and then you destroyed the only proof I have that-”

“You were careless?” Swift said, caustically.

She glared. “No! That I had no way of knowing that-”

“You lost a patient because you lost your way!” he retorted.

“He had two hearts, of course I did!” Grace exclaimed. She barely heard the door open. “The man had two hearts, how was I supposed to know where-”

Swift interrupted again. “Without a body or an x-ray, we now have no proof of wrongdoing. And as for the wife-”

“What of her?”

They spun and saw Rose in the doorway. She was nothing short of furious. 

Grace gulped. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to know what he’s planning,” Rose snarled. She marched over to Swift. “You’re lucky I’m forgiving, but this takes the cake. What? Were you planning on giving me a large sum of money to keep me quiet? As if paying me off would help the fact that my husband was killed? He has friends, colleagues, sooner or later someone would have found out even if I stayed quiet, which I would never, ever do. The Doctor, my husband, wouldn’t want that of me. And he would be ashamed of you.”

Swift stepped back, alarmed. “Ma’am, I can assure you, I had no such thoughts-”

“Pull the other one, mate,” she snarled. “And if you don’t help me find my husband, you’ll be stuck with a lawsuit so large your grandchildren will still be paying it off.”

He ran.

Rose took a few deep breaths before calming. Grace stared at her in awe. “You were very brave. Not many cross him.”

“I’m married to the best chess player in the universe,” Rose said grimly. “Now, Grace, please. What do you know of my husband’s location?”

She sighed. “He was stolen from the morgue last night. Pete- the attendant- he said that there was this… banging, and he saw another man dressed in a shroud with an ID tag.”

“What did he look like?”

Grace frowned. “What does that matter?”

“Please,” Rose asked.

“Well… he was tall, I suppose, with curls. Pete didn’t really describe him,” Grace replied. “It was probably the body snatcher though, so I should probably call him…”

Rose shook her head. “Grace, that man _is_ my husband. He… well, let’s just say he was… resurrected. But he’s probably having difficulty remembering who he is, what he is, so I need to find him. He’s… he’s wrong.”

“What on earth do you mean?” Grace demanded as she followed Rose out of her office. “The second coming was a joke!”

Rose looked at her blankly. “Second coming?”

“Pete said he had risen from the grave,” Grace muttered.

“Why couldn’t we have landed in 3999?” Rose mumbled to Grace’s confusion before she shook herself. “Doesn’t matter. Regardless, we have to find him.”

“He could be anywhere,” Grace said as they pressed the button for the elevator. “It happened early this morning, so for all we know he could be in Mexico by now.” She paused. “Look, I’ll give you my address. We’ll go to the local authorities, see if they’ve seen anyone, and you can meet me at my house tonight to share information.” She had pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from her purse as she spoke, scribbling her information down before thrusting it at Rose.

Rose shook her head, but accepted the paper anyway. “He’ll be here, Grace. Trust me. Look, I’ll look in the hospital itself, you try and… I dunno. Figure things out with the hospital.”

Before Grace could argue, she was gone, and Grace shook her head. At least Rose wasn’t upset anymore, although Grace knew from experience that the harder someone’s denial, the harder the fall.

The elevator finally opened and Grace stepped inside. The doors were closing when another man joined her. She rolled her eyes when she saw the costume. Someone was clearly already drunk.

“Puccini,” the man said, intently, crowding her space. “We’ve met before.”

Make that plastered, she thought, although he didn’t smell like alcohol. Drugs? “I don’t think we have.” He was rather good looking- wavy auburn hair, crystal blue eyes, and a rather aristocratic facial structure. Any other moment in time, she would have enjoyed the physical closeness- but she had a missing body to find, a body snatcher to arrest, and a boyfriend. Especially a boyfriend.

… Speaking of, why hadn’t Brian called yet?

The man stared at her, an excited look in his eyes. “Yes, yes, I think so. I know you. You’re tired of life, but so afraid of dying.”

A shiver went down her spine and it wasn’t in a pleasant way. “Who are you?”

“I don’t know,” he said, mournfully, and the elevator dinged open. Grace shook herself and hurried out. The man followed. “I was hoping you could tell me. There was music. Madame Butterfly. You were there! I saw you last night!”

Grace hurried from the elevator. The man was clearly a lunatic. “I have never seen you before in my life. Now leave me alone.”

“No, but you were there, I saw you last night!” he insisted, hopping along beside her. His eyes were wide, excited, eager. “You and another blonde woman. There was music. Madame Butterfly!”

Grace tried to pick up her pace, looking around for another person. Unfortunately, the garage was empty. “Please, go away.” She didn’t want to deal with a madman when she had a corpse to look for.

The man followed after her, desperation in his voice. “Please, I, I don’t know who I am, but I know you know me!” His name, his name was _wrong_.

Oh, thank god, there was her car. “I’ll call security!” she threatened as she fumbled for her keys.

He grabbed her arms. “Please,” he begged. “Do you know who I am?”

Grace was terrified. This man must have escaped from the psych ward and attached himself to her. She had done her rotations there, years ago, and still remembered one of the patients who hadn’t taken his meds. He had broken the nurse’s arms in a panic, and Grace still remembered the terror and fear for the man’s life as she held him down so the doctor could sedate him. He had been moved to a mental hospital the next day. Though she doubted this man would hurt her, he had up till now ignored her pleas and continued to follow her. “I don’t know who you are and I don’t care!” she finally exclaimed. “Now, let go, you’re hurting me!”

The man scrambled away from her like he was burned, wrapping his arms around himself. “Please, you’re a doctor, you can help me.”

He looked… lost. Lost and afraid and confused. “Look, fifth floor, that’s psychiatric. They probably have you on file.” She quickly turned and hurried to the driver’s side of the car, dropping her keys. She huffed and picked them back up with shaking hands.

Since she had unlocked the door while approaching the car, Grace quickly slid in and put her keys in the ignition. Before she could start the car, however, there was a scream from the back seat.

Grace screamed as well and saw the man flailing. She laid into her horn, hoping, praying that someone was around to hear. “Get out!” she yelled.

He ignored her. “It’s.. it’s my hearts!” he shouted and Grace stared. Did he just say…? “There’s something in there!”

The man tore at his clothes, scrambling to reveal his chest- and she hated herself a little bit for admiring him- until she saw the small incision on the right side of his chest. He frantically clawed at it until he grabbed something and started pulling out a very familiar wire.

“You… but…” she spluttered, her hand falling from the car horn in shock. That was… that was the probe. The probe that had snapped off in Rose’s husbands chest. But this man… this man looked nothing like him!

The man stared at the probe in horror. “What is this?” Not giving her a chance to reply, he threw the probe away in fear. “Please, please help me,” he begged, eyes wide and terrified. “They’re going to kill me again, I can’t die, there’s someone… someone I have to live for.” He clutched his head. “Who is she? Who am I? What’d they do to me?”

Grace acted on instinct. Turning the keys in the ignition, she slammed the car into gear and sped out of the parking garage. The man in the back seat curled in on himself, muttering and shaking. 

She wondered if it had been foolish to let Rose out of her sight. Maybe she could do something for this man- after all, he seemed to have the same condition as her husband.

A small, tiny part of her mind remembered the way Rose had been so assured that her husband had… changed, somehow. That he had come back to life. She shook her head and turned towards the interstate. At any rate, Rose would be at her house soon, and they’d get everything cleared then.

Right?

~*~

Rose hurried through the ER and towards the entrance, her search through the rest of the hospital not yielding any results. She had even nicked an ID from a security guard to gain access to the video feeds, though they didn’t reveal much. There was some sort of power surge during the time the Doctor went missing, which she assumed occurred during his regeneration. It wasn’t much help. Frustrated, she slipped out of the booth again and decided to scope out the area near the TARDIS.

She sat down on a bench and opened the brown paper bag that had been residing in her pockets, only to stare in horror at the missing contents. She frantically tried to remember if she had accidentally knocked it over. Then she remembered Lee and how he had been left alone with the contents, and her bitter, angry words outside the hospital.

Rose took a breath, held it, and let it out. Right. She definitely needed to return to the place where the TARDIS was, and hopefully she’d find Lee by scouting the area and asking around.

This time, though, she was going to be prepared. Rose wasn’t about to go wandering around the backstreets of LA without help, and if she terrified the gangs with her abilities, well… maybe it’ll persuade them to talk.

She tapped into that spot inside her mind that controlled her abilities as a segment to the Key to Time, letting it trickle through her. Her senses sharpened and she became more alert. After stuffing the bag back into her pocket- all her pockets were bigger on the inside and linked to one main storage port, so she didn’t have to worry about transferring every time she changed clothes- she dug out the psychic paper that she only used in cases of emergencies and strode to the front door to take advantage of the taxi service.

She brushed by a man wearing sunglasses as she exited and didn’t notice the way he turned sharply to look after her. 

The Master had known, of course, that Rose Tyler was nearby- she and the Doctor were almost like a love-knot, wrapped around each other in body and mind. The last time they had met, Rose had manipulated Time on a level that not even Time Lords were able to, allowing the Master just enough time to escape the dying planet he was abandoned on. He still wasn’t sure why she had done it- they had a civil relationship when he wasn’t trying to capture her or the Doctor, and it didn’t take long to see why his greatest enemy had fallen for her. She was extraordinary, definitely, and the scientific mind that the Doctor prided himself on was fascinated by her- but she was the Doctor’s equal in many ways. Her mind was one of the few the Master couldn’t crack, much to his annoyance, because while the Doctor found her fascinating because of who she was, the Master wanted to know what she was.

Gallifrey had been in a tizzy about Rose Tyler ever since they had forcibly regenerated the Doctor and stranded him on Earth. When she had arrived with him at the Panopticon in his sixth body without showing one sign of her age, they had exploded into rage and, though none wanted to admit it, curiosity. Any time-sensitive species could tell she was different. Even the Rani had wanted to dissect her, a privilege she didn’t give to just any human. The last time he had asked about her talents she had pretended like she hadn’t heard him, and the Doctor was notoriously defensive over her. Even breaking into the minds of their companions had told him nothing, and Romana had nearly given him amnesia the last time he had tried hypnotizing her.

However, when they had collided in the entrance of the hospital, she had let some stray thoughts through and a bit of her power zinged through him, infusing his cells with something… other. Something not of this Universe. He had gotten the impression that the Doctor had just regenerated- a somewhat depressing thought, because it meant one less life for the Master to absorb- but had gone missing, and that some young human child named Lee was the key to finding the wayward Time Lord. He also realized that Rose had enlisted the help of someone named Grace Holloway, and that the Doctor was most likely suffering from regenerative sickness, if Rose being unable to access their Bond was any indication. It was probably the reason why her shields were weak; her mind was floundering to make contact with its bond-mate and not too worried about potential threats like him. Her mistake, really, since he now knew who to look for.

Before he could leave a woman that Bruce’s memories informed him was called Curtis approached. “Bruce! I thought it was your day off. What’s with the shades?”

“Bad night,” the Master grunted. “I was just here to pick up the body I brought here last night, but since it’s gone, might as well leave.”

Curtis smiled sympathetically. “Say hello to Miranda for me.”

The Master didn’t respond, merely swept out the door and headed to the car Bruce had owned.

Now all he had to do was track down Lee and persuade him to help. Then, the Doctor would be his.

~*~

Grace finally pulled into her driveway and the man hopped out of the back, looking around in interest. He had calmed about five minutes into her drive and seemed to have fallen asleep. Every so often his arms would move restlessly, as if searching for something, but eventually he would settle with a small frown on his face. Only when Grace had started slowing down and entered her community did he finally open his eyes.

“Are you feeling better now?” Grace asked as she unlocked her door.

He nodded “Much better, now that I don’t have to worry about some primitive wiring in my cardiovascular system.”

She stared at him. “Primitive?” At his innocent expression she sighed and shook her head, opening the door. And promptly froze. “I don’t believe it.”

Mystified, he looked around. “Did you walk into the wrong house?”

“He… he took all his stuff!” Grace exclaimed. “The television, his books, the sofa… even the coffee maker! Who takes a coffee maker?”

“Who’s he?”

“Bryan,” Grace said darkly, glaring at the spot on the wall which once held a panorama of Paris.

“Boyfriend?” the man asked as he looked at an empty picture frame.

Grace placed her hands on her hips. “Ex-boyfriend now. I can’t believe it!”

The man smiled sympathetically. “Well, at least you can find someone who appreciates you now.”

Something in her melted a bit at his smile. “Yeah… I suppose so.” She shook her head. “Listen, find a place to sit and open your shirt so I can listen to your heart.”

“Hearts,” he corrected. At her look he smiled. “Plural.”

She blinked. “Right. Anyway, follow me.” She walked to the mezzanine, grumbling. “Don’t know why I even stayed with him. Should have known the first night he invited me to the bar with his friends. He was so engrossed in discussing the latest football game he didn’t even notice I left until four hours later!”

The man paused at her words and looked around. The octagonal area reminded him of… something. And her words. There was something about a person named Michael…

“I think I’m starting to remember more,” he told Grace, but the memory fled as soon as he said the words. He blinked and looked around. “Lovely view.” There were several floor-to-ceiling windows in the room and he wondered if the house was bigger on the inside. Huh. Wasn’t that a funny thought?”

“Thank you,” Grace replied as she finally located her spare stethoscope. She turned to face him, thinking about his problem. “Maybe you have selective amnesia brought on by shock.”

“Maybe,” he admitted. “I don’t remember.”

Grace rolled her eyes and pushed him down into a chair, settling across from him. 

He stared around the room, finally spotting a sketch of a young woman. He smiled. “Ah, Da Vinci. He had a cold when he drew that. I told-” he paused. “There was someone there with me. She, it was a she, but I can’t…”

Grace ignored him, focussing on the worrying sounds in his chest. “You’re still fibrillating badly.” Maybe that was why he was hallucinating about people long dead?

“No,” he said absently. “Here.” He moved her hand to the other side of his chest and looked at the assortment of items on her desk. One caught his eye and he picked it up, confused. Puccini's _Madame Butterfly_.

“I remember!” he exclaimed, startling Grace. “I was with Puccini before he died!”

She rolled her eyes and wondered if she shouldn’t bring him back to the psych ward. “Name dropper.” She didn’t bring home a crazy, did she?

Even if the crazy really was rather easy on the eyes.

“No I was, I swear I was!” he insisted. “That girl was there, the one… the one with eternity in her eyes. It was a birthday present but I got it wrong. I was trying so hard…” he trailed off, brow furrowed as he struggled to reclaim the memory. Had it always been this hard to navigate his own mind? It was sluggish, confused. 

Grace concentrated on the sounds from the stethoscope, confused about the echo- until she realized it wasn’t an echo. She moved her stethoscope over the the left side of his chest and there it was, the same sound. “Oh my god,” she breathed, staring at him in shock. He was telling the truth. He really did have two hearts!

“See? That’s no echo,” he replied absently before gesturing at the CD again and turning to the side, as if talking to someone. “Puccini died before he could finish _Turandot_! Alfano finished it based of his notes. It was so sad…” he looked back at the case. “At least until he started flirting with… with her. The Forever girl. I told her she liked her pretty boys…” Oh, dear. His mind was going through another round of neural implosions. How did he stop talking again?

Grace grabbed his shoulders. “You have two hearts!” How was this possible? What was he? “Who are you?” she demanded. The man she had killed had two hearts. And then another man pops up with the same condition hours later?

He shook his head at her. “I was dead too long this time. The anesthetic almost destroyed the regenerative process. She’s probably…” He paused. “Who is she?”

Distracted as she was about the puzzle in front of her, Grace barely heard his words. “I’m going to find a syringe, take some blood, and figure out how you’re alive. I have to know what is going on here.” This was a miracle, an impossibility, and one that she could learn so much from. Was it natural? Manufactured? Could it help people with heart conditions last longer? How did his hearts affect his blood pressure? Was it better or worse? And what had happened to the man who had died at her hand? Did they have a connection? Maybe they were related...

“No, no, no, Grace, please, don’t you see?” he insisted, trying to catch her as she walked away but failing. “I have thirteen lives!”

“Please,” she said, rolling her eyes. At his earnest expression though, she sighed. “So, what? You’re trying to tell me you came back from the dead?”

“Yes!”

She threw her hands up in frustration and could feel her patience wearing thin. The sooner she brought him back to the psych ward, the better. “Look, I’m sorry. The dead stay dead. You can’t turn back time.”

Though the expression on his face was gentle, there was a surety and agelessness in his eyes that awed and terrified her. It reminded her of her father’s eyes, the years before he had his stroke. Compassionate but firm. They were the same eyes that belonged to the doctors who told her that her daddy would make it, that she would see him again in a few hours. “Yes you can.”

She remembered waiting in the hospital with her grandmother, certain that he would walk out the door any moment. And seeing the surgeon instead. _I’m sorry, he didn’t make it_. “Don’t talk to me like a child!” she snapped. “I”m not a child. Only children believe that crap.” She took a breath, calming herself down. “I’m a doctor.” She turned to find the syringe.

“But it was a childish dream that led you to become a doctor,” he said, stopping her in her tracks. “You dreamed you could hold back death.”

Grace stared at him in wonder and terror. How could he…? No. No, he was insane, impossible, and the sooner she figured him out the sooner she could get him out of her life. Distracted now, she walked to one of the windows, staring out it, trying to calm her thoughts and feelings

She barely heard his next comment. “Don’t be sad, Grace. You’ll do great things.”

From her position she could see him absorbed in a desk ornament, a silly little jointed wolf figurine her grandmother had given her on her eighteenth birthday as a joke.

She closed her eyes, briefly, before turning back to the window. She wished she could believe him.


	4. Chapter 4

Lee stared at the blue box Rose and her husband had exited from, the crate beneath him rocking as he shifted. He had been looking at it for at least an hour now and nothing had changed. He wasn’t entirely sure what had drawn him to it; he had intended to sell off the items from the bag, but after a fruitless journey through the local pawnshops, he’d finally made his way to the blue box There was something telling him that there was something inside and he needed to find out what. 

He had discovered the key shortly after he made it back to the alley he called home and, after puzzling over it for a few minutes, he realized what it was for. The chain was caught up with the fob watch and he untangled them patiently. The silver tool hadn’t done anything but cause the surrounding dogs to start howling, and he had shoved it in his pocket in disgust. The wallet was disappointingly short of cash and the cards were quickly deemed useless because he didn’t have the pin numbers. The names were all different, too, and some were banks he hadn’t even heard of, let alone understood, since they were in a different language. Even the fob watch was broken, and looked old and tarnished. He had asked around at all the local pawnshops, but they had offered very little and despaired at the work it would take to make the thing start working again. 

Frustrated, the only thing left was the odd blue box, which led to him sitting on the crate and staring at it.

Eventually there was a lull in foot and motor traffic as dusk started to creep onto the horizon, and he darted across the street and stepped under the yellow tape. Most of the trash had been cleared away, but there was still the ever-present layer of flyers and papers on the ground. 

He fumbled with the lock, trying to figure out why it didn’t fit, when the cover swung away to reveal a proper slot. He hesitated, wondering if he had any right to take a grieving widow’s treasures, then shrugged. Survival of the fittest.

The key slid into place and turned easily, and he pushed the doors open. At first, everything was dark, but a few steps in revealed a dimly lit cavernous space.

Lee stared. Then promptly turned and ran.

Heart hammering, he raced around the outside of the box. There was no way it was that big. It must have been… an illusion, or a daydream, or a trick of the light!

He cautiously pushed his way inside again, revealing the same enormous interior. Lee pinched himself to make certain he wasn’t dreaming, and, when the sharp pain was felt, he took a deep breath. Definitely awake, then.

The place was… impressive. Dark wood floors and walls, sconces that burned with fire, furniture and decorations that reminded him of scenes from a history book spread through the large room. There were bookcases and chairs with side tables arranged around the room, and a tea set with a broken cup was sat at one. He tested it- the tea was cold. A book called It was lying open on the floor and another was half-under the chair. Lee picked it up. The Time Machine. He flicked through the pages for a moment before setting it down next to the tea set and wandered towards the collection of clocks.

There was a noise coming from the front of the room and Lee spun. “Hello?” 

When no answer came he walked forward nervously. What if Rose had come back? She could easily have him arrested if she caught him in here, and he would be carted off to the loony bin if he tried calling her an alien.

Because there was no way, with something like this, that she was human. The box had appeared out of nowhere and was bigger on the inside, not to mention the large age difference between Rose and her husband. He was probably some wealthy alien prince. But most of the stuff around here was obviously stuff found in a house- books, chairs, lamps, fireplaces. No televisions or artworks or jewelry. There was a dark spot that seemed to lead to a hallway, but he was worried about getting lost. Who knew what was back there?

A flash of movement caught his eye and he spun, worried. “I saw you move! Who’s there?”

From the other side of the room a figure stepped out of the shadows. Lee saw it was the paramedic from last night, wearing dark glasses and leather gloves along with his uniform. “Hello, how’d you get in here? Don’t scare me like that, this place is freaky enough.”

The man ignored him. “Your name is Chang Lee, yes?”

There was something in the man’s voice that sent alarm bells ringing through Lee’s head. He stepped back against one of the metal support beams that surrounded the strange bit of machinery in the center of the room. The lights suddenly powered up, a low whine emitting from the center of the room. “Well I never,” the paramedic said in delight. “The TARDIS seems to like you.”

Lee looked at him suspiciously. “What are you talking about?” This entire situation was freaky and the sooner he got out, the better. He shouldn’t have gotten on that ambulance, no matter how nice Rose seemed. Well… had seemed. Though she probably hadn’t meant those words; he had done some pretty stupid things before when his best friend died that he still regretted.

“The TARDIS,” the man replied, gesturing around them. “What we’re standing in. It’s a spaceship, that travels in time and across the universe. It contains untold treasures and weapons, and with your help, we can use it to rule not just the world, but the entire universe.”

There was something in his voice that made Lee sway towards him. His eyes were mesmerizing… That’s funny, when had he taken off his glasses? Lee wasn’t sure. All he knew was that the voice promised sincerity…

“What do I need to do?” His voice was far-away and dazed.

“Give me the items you have on you,” the man commanded.

Lee did so, placing them on the sloped top of the odd machine. The man smiled. “Thank you, Lee. Now, what do you know of Rose?”

“Rose?” he asked, quizzically. “She… was staying at a hotel across from the hospital. She was grieving because her husband died.”

The man shook his head. “Not died, regenerated. Did she tell you anything about him?” 

“No. As soon as she got into her room she went to the bathroom, and I took those things and left.”

The man frowned. “Does she know you took them?”

“Well I was the only other person to have access to them.”

The man slipped his glasses back on and Lee blinked, shaking his head as the fuzzy feeling faded. “Thank you, Lee. You were a big help.”

“I was?”

He nodded. “Yes. And now I can help you in return.”

Lee hesitated, glancing back at the door. “What’s in it for me?”

The man grinned and he looked almost… skeletal in the light. “Power.”

~*~

Grace sighed as she stared through the microscope, books and papers scattered around her desk. Her guest had finally allowed her to take a blood sample in exchange for him to wander about the house, so she had agreed without hesitation. She hadn’t realized how complicated it would be, however. His blood clearly wasn’t human and the rare books she had on animal anatomy didn’t touch it, either. From what she could glean it was similar to a lizard’s, but there were so many different markers and grooves she couldn’t tell.

Eventually the man whose blood she couldn’t figure out wandered back downstairs, holding a pair of shoes. “Probably shouldn’t go barefoot,” he said cheerfully as he plopped down on the steps. “And these were the only ones that would fit me.”

Grace hummed noncommittally, flicking through the pages of a journal over blood diseases. Maybe his two hearts affected the shape?

Meanwhile, he slid the shoes on and wiggled his feet. “Hmm, not bad.” He stood and jogged in place, then wandered over to Grace. “Did these belong to…?”

“Brian? Yep,” she replied, then moved back to the microscope. “You can keep them.”

He grinned. “Thank you.” After a few more experiment bounces and running around, he walked back over to her. “How’s my blood?” he asked, picking up a magnifying glass and placing it in front of his eye. He grinned and pushed it away from him and back again, watching as Grace zoomed in and out of focus.

She huffed. “This isn’t blood. If I hadn’t taken a sample of it myself I would think someone was playing a trick and given me animal blood.”

He paused, her words sparking another memory, of a different hospital. The doctors there had thought he had animal blood as well. Just like before, however, the memory skittered away before he could concentrate on it and he abruptly looked down at his feet again. “I wonder if should walk in them more, stretch them out a bit. They might fit me better.”

Grace paused then looked up at him. “You know what? You’re right. Let’s go for a walk. Might clear both our heads.”

He grinned and followed after her.

Grace lived right across the street from the park, which was the reason she had bought the house- when she wasn’t sleeping at the hospital she liked running in the mornings, and the park was well-maintained. The running path was nearly ten miles long, winding through the three neighborhoods in the area. There were plenty of double-backs and spots to turn around for those who didn’t want to make the complete loop, but Grace loved it. She took him on this trail now, watching as he practically skipped along beside her at first before settling into a more comfortable walk, looking around him in joy.

“Maybe you’re part of a genetic experiment,” Grace mused as they passed a few silver maples that made him stare. “Some sort of… superhuman?”

“Don’t think so,” he replied. “Don’t feel it.”

She considered him. “Well, you have no recollection of who you are or even if you have family.”

“No,” he replied and paused, gripping his head. “No, no, no, wait, wait, wait! I remember… I’m lying in a field of grass, next to… next to her. I wanted to show her the meteor shower, because my father had taken me once as a child. Yes!” he exclaimed. “It’s a warm Gallifreyan night-”

“Gallifreyan?” she asked, confused.

He dropped his hands and beamed. “Gallifrey! Yes, that’s where I lived. Now where is that?”

“I’ve never heard of it! Maybe in Ireland?” she asked. “What do you remember?”

“I took her to watch the meteor shower,” he continued, eyes far away. “She was wearing a yellow dress that stood out amongst the red grass, and I teased her because she was the prettiest yellow flower on the planet. She laughed and told me that I had gotten better at flattery. The sky above us was dancing with lights, purple, green, yellow… but all I saw was her.”

He suddenly buckled, clutching his head with a cry, and Grace caught him, alarmed. “Who’s she? What’s her name?”

He gasped, then suddenly bolted upright. “Yes!”

“What?” Grace asked, alarmed.

“These shoes fit perfectly!” he beamed and ran off towards the trees.

Grace stared after him in shock.

~*~

Though the paramedic was clearly off, Lee followed after him, intrigued at what he offered. He was led to a wall lined with various drawers and the man opened one to pull out a red bag. The room had hummed with a strange energy ever since the machine in the middle had turned on, and Lee looked around nervously. It sounded… pained.

“You know,” the paramedic said casually as he turned to Lee. “This was all mine before he stole it from me.”

Lee looked around. “Really?” He paused. “Makes sense, though. He has a lot of credit cards, and they all have different names. Is he a con artist?”

“Something like that.” The man leaned against one of the support beams. “He stole my lives, you know. We used to be the best of friends, but he got a taste of power one day. I tried to help him, but he trapped me and stole my regenerations. I’ve been looking for him for so long, and now I might finally be able to get them back.”

Though Lee was confused about what ‘regenerations’ were, his mind went straight to Rose. “What about his wife, though? Rose? Does she know about him?”

The man sighed. “She’s blind to his faults. Part of it is hypnosis, the other part is misguided loyalty. Once I’ve taken the Doctor’s lives that he’s stolen, she’ll be herself once more.”

“What did he do with those?” Lee asked. “The stolen regenerations, I mean.”

“Unspeakable things,” the man sighed, remorsefully. His voice had become soft and sibilant, a voice that Lee knew he could trust. 

Lee pitched his voice into a quiet hush. “Like what?”

“Genghis Khan,” the man replied. “That was him. I’m no saint, but the Doctor… he is evil incarnate. Even his name was chosen to lead one astray, like the snake in the garden of Eden.”

“The snake…” Lee echoed, eyes hazy.

He didn’t realize the man had moved until his arm fell across Lee’s shoulders. “What do you want, Lee?”

Lee blinked and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“If you could have anything, anything at all, what would it be?” the man replied.

Lee considered. A house, a family, respect… “Money, I guess.”

“How much?”

“A million?” Lee offered.

The man snorted. “Think bigger, Lee!”

“A billion!” Lee replied, sarcastically.

The man didn’t seem to notice the tone. “And what will this buy you?”

Lee paused at the intensity of the man’s voice. He seemed to believe that he could provide Lee with that money. “Power,” he replied, remembering his earlier comment.

“Power,” the man agreed. He handed Lee the bag he had gotten from the drawer.

Curious, Lee opened it. He reached in and felt fine, grainy powder, and examined it in confusion. “Gold dust?” What good would gold dust do him?

The man smiled. “You get the rest when we get my body back.”

At that moment, Lee didn’t care what he had to do- the bag in his hand held more money than he had earned his entire life, and if he was promised more… “You have a deal.”

“Excellent. Now, let me show you around.” 

They hadn’t taken more than three steps when a female voice rang through the room. “And just where do you think you’re going?”

~*~

Rose had immediately travelled back to the TARDIS upon leaving the hospital, checking to make sure the ship was alright and that nothing required immediate attention. That done, she went to the local police station, describing Lee and asking if they knew about him.

“Yeah, I know that kid,” the officer replied. “Right little trouble-maker too; he’s part of a local gang and always seems to stir up the fights between his and another. I’ve busted him more than once for pickpocketing and drug dealing. Why do you ask?”

Rose hesitated slightly. “My husband was shot the other day and he helped me get him to the hospital. Just wanted to say thanks.”

The officer snorted. “Him, really? Doesn’t really seem in character.”

It took a bit of coaxing, but the officer finally and reluctantly described Lee’s favorite haunts and the general area of where the boy lived. Rose thanked him and left, clutching the piece of paper, ignoring the comment he made about Brits under his breath. She wasn’t British, even if she was descended from them, but she had spent enough time there and around the Doctor to adopt an accent. 

Since she figured Lee would try to pawn the items he had stolen, Rose went to the nearest pawn shop, only to learn that Lee had been there moments earlier. It seemed the boy was always one step ahead of her. After she had exhausted the shops- holding back a pang of emotion that the Doctor would have been delighted at some of the curios on sale- she pulled out the list and started working her way down the places.

By the time she was through night had started to fall, and she was tired and frustrated, not to mention grimy. She had been in the same clothes for two days now and wanted nothing more than to change. The Doctor was still alive, but their bond was still closed off; sometimes she could feel his presence brighten slightly, but whenever she tried making contact she simply bounced back off his walls. His mind had probably automatically erected them out of instinct as he recovered from his regeneration, but it still hurt. 

With a sigh, Rose turned back to the TARDIS, ignoring the caution sign and slipping the chain that held her key over her neck. She slid it into the lock, but paused. The TARDIS felt… funny. Sick, almost. As if there was someone inside…

Rose eased the door open slowly and slid inside, the doors closing soundlessly behind her. She could see the Master and Lee in front of her, their backs to her- he had found the Doctor’s stash of gold dust, from the time they had helped free a mining planet from their dictators. She was wondering why he had gone for that drawer when the gems and precious stones were a few rows above, but figured he had just looked into the first one that caught his eye. She smiled grimly. “And just where do you think you’re going?” Rose asked as they started to walk off.

They froze then turned to look at her. Rose walked towards them nonchalantly. “Good to see you again, Master, although it’s not really an improvement from your other bodies. Glad you finally ditched the beard, though- it really wasn’t growing on me.”

“Rose Tyler,” the Master said and even though his eyes were covered, she could tell he was eyeing her warily. “I was wondering when you would show up.”

“No doubt hoping I would take a little longer,” she retorted. “What did he promise you, Lee? Gold? No, he’s not that subtle. Power? I bet he didn’t mention that he’s not too keen on sharing.”

Lee looked at her in concern. “Rose, he’s the good guy. Your husband-”

She held up a hand. “Let me guess. Is some sort of evil overlord, has brainwashed me, maybe even stole something of the Master’s?” At the boy’s silence she sighed. “Really, Koschei, you’re too predictable sometimes.”

The Master stiffened. “Don’t call me that!” he snapped. “And Lee, don’t listen to her. Remember what I said.”

Rose stepped forward and the light from the TARDIS seemed to glow around her. “Oh, I don’t think so. You come into my home, vandalize my TARDIS, and seek to kill my husband. I don’t know how you plan to survive, but you died, Master. No matter what happens you are going to Gallifrey.”

Lee darted away as the Master took a step back, Rose’s hairs and clothes rustling from an invisible wind. “You’re a fool if you think you can take me on mentally,” the Master replied. “I may not be able to hypnotize you, but your shields are nothing compared to mine.”

“Who says this is going to be mental?” Rose shot back. “It was only because of the Doctor that I didn’t slap you the last time I saw you.”

“You spared my life on the cheetah planet,” he reminded her, as they began circling each other. “Why do that if you wanted me dead?”

There was an invisible ripple through the air and Lee smelled ozone. “Because for whatever reason, the Doctor thinks that you are redeemable. He still sees that young boy that he played with back on Gallifrey. And his happiness comes first. I helped you escape because I thought you would take the second chance and make something good out of it. Guess I should have known better.”

He was silent for a time. “It is curious,” he said slowly, “how much you have changed. The young girl I met on Earth all those centuries ago didn’t have an ounce of the power you have now. Tell me, Rose… how much did you change yourself for the Doctor? How much will you continue to change until you are no longer recognizable?”

The air started to vibrate, but Rose’s eyes were sad. “Not everything is about weapons or control or possession,” she replied. “I created myself, and I grew from my experiences. I’m no longer the lounge singer from the slums, yes; but I’m still Rose Tyler. The Doctor showed me a better way of living my life.”

“And yet here you are with the ability to manipulate time,” the Master said. “Are you even human anymore, Rose?”

“Oh, if you only knew what I was capable of,” Rose said quietly, eyes taking on a golden hue. “I have more power than you can ever even dream of.”

She moved so quickly, Lee wasn’t even sure he had seen her; one moment she was standing about five feet from the Master- was that really his name? Lee wondered. He seemed to have hated Koschei, whatever that was- and the next second she had propelled the Master nearly to the wall. He managed to twist out of her grasp and lunge at her.

They went down in a pile of flailing limbs and Lee looked around nervously. They were blocking the door to the exit, but a large pair of double doors was now illuminated in the dark spot he had noticed earlier. He quietly creeped over there and slid past them, heart pounding when he closed them behind him.

The only thing left was to find a place to hide. He set off running.

Rose didn’t even notice that Lee had left, trying to keep the Master’s hands away from her temples, since she knew he would try to break past her shields. The last time they had met Rose had slapped him, so she figured this was payback; although the time manipulation was new. He didn’t seem to understand how she could sense his intention and counteract them, but she was a segment of the Key to Time, even if she rarely used those abilities.

The Master managed to land a punch and Rose rolled, licking her lip- definitely busted. She spat the blood away and grinned ferally, golden light seeming to shine from her. “Used to be that you had others do your dirty work. Been in America too long, Master?”

“This man who used to own this body had anger management issues and took weekly kickboxing classes,” the Master replied. “It’s rather… invigorating, I must admit. Still, I cannot allow you to get in the way of my plan. The one I want is the Doctor, not you.”

“Funny,” Rose said as they resumed their circling. “There are people out there who would gladly take me any day over some random Time Lord. You lot are a dime a dozen; why don’t you go take over someone else’s body? You know the world would be a boring place without the Doctor around.”

“But it’ll be mine,” he replied. “And with him out of the way I can see my plans through. He’s the only one who has it in his mind to stop me, and it’s not like the Time Lords will do anything about it. They’ll set fire to their own citadel and debate on how best to put it out while the ceiling falls down around their heads.

“And meanwhile, I’ll use the Doctor’s lives to achieve my goal,” the Master taunted. “Imagine it, Rose. The man once known as the Doctor, the one who makes things better, used to set the Universe ablaze. And it will be glorious; a chaos of my own creation, a war that never ends and the drums of war. And in the end I will be victorious.”

Her voice was tight. “You’re insane.”

“Am I?” he asked. “Or am I simply inspired?”

“I won’t let you near him,” she replied.

“And that is where you are wrong,” he replied. “Because he’ll come to me.”

Too late, Rose realized he had maneuvered her into a corner. Though she tried escaping, he caught her easily, forcing his hand to her temples as his mind tore through her defenses.

She screamed, and the Bond flared.

~*~

Lee didn’t know what direction he was taking, but eventually he found a large, circular room with vaulted ceilings that looked liked it opened up to the night sky, and what looked like a giant dome in the center. A massive chandelier hung from the ceiling, illuminating the space with thousands of candles; two bats that had been hanging from it squeaked and flew off, indignant at the intrusion. Large arched windows were set into the wall and solid carved beams vanished into the starry projection.

He stared around in awe, the gothic feel of the room impressing him. He slowly walked around the circumference, running his hands over intricately carved running boards and odd figurines. It was quiet, still, almost sacred, and there was a humming in the air that was barely discernable. And yet he relaxed, finding it comforting.

Eventually, he figured, someone would find him, whether it was the Master or Rose. Hopefully he could keep his wits about him and come out on top either way.

~*~

Grace had been getting annoyed at the Doctor’s ADD as he bounced from one thing to the other. He had been avoiding her questions or not registering them, she didn’t know, but he was beginning to wear on her patience. She was just about to suggest they return back to her house (and the car) when he suddenly collapsed, clutching his head.

Alarmed, she ran over and grabbed him before he could fall over. “What is it?” she asked, worried.

“Something… something is happening,” he gasped. “Something…”

He froze, suddenly, and leapt up, grabbing Grace’s forearms. “I remember who I am!” he exclaimed, eyes bright and shining. Without warning he pressed his lips to hers, and Grace’s mind went fuzzy.

The kiss wasn’t passionate nor careful, but hips lips felt warm and soft and it had been a while since someone had kissed her. Brian rarely wanted sex and he usually kissed her cheek or her forehead. This… she could tell he was a good kisser. The angle, the pressure, it was all perfect.

She was about to kiss him back when he pulled away from her. “No no no no that was wrong!” he exclaimed. “You… Rose!” he shouted and slammed his eyes shut.

“What? Who?” Grace demanded, confused.

He didn’t respond, merely plopped down at the base of the tree, a look on intense concentration on his face. With a sigh she sat down beside him, tilting her head back to look up at the sky.


	5. Chapter 5

He was the Doctor. A Time Lord from Gallifrey, travelling the universe in his TARDIS. He had regenerated because of a gunshot wound and the anesthetics had nearly destroyed the regeneration process. But he remembered everything, who he was, where he was, why he was there… and, in his joy he had kissed Grace. And it was then that he remembered Rose.

The lips beneath his hadn’t been right and he had expected a reaction until all the memories slammed back in. Rose with that tongue-touched smile. Rose glowing with the power of the Key to Time. Rose wearing his fifth self’s jumper, Rose racing him through the TARDIS, Rose holding him as he suffered. Rose staring up at him as they made love, their minds and bodies twined together in the most intimate of ways. And so he had pulled back and reached for her, his Rose, his mind dark and empty without her there, because he could hear her screaming through their Bond.

It was the work of seconds to re-establish their connection and to pour his consciousness through it. What he found filled him with a rage that he had barely felt before.

The Master was violating her, tearing through her mind as he sought to destroy her and steal her life and abilities for his own. Rose was fighting, struggling to hold him back, but she was no match and was faltering. It had taken everything she had to protect the most basic part of herself and their Bond, and he felt a moment of pride for her before he added his strength to hers. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered to her.

Rose did not respond, but he could feel the relief and joy coursing through her. Together, they fought back, the Doctor throwing his mind against the Master’s as Rose buoyed him, and eventually the Master was thrown out. He only had a second to calm her frantic nerves and send her a wave of love and apology before she went unconscious, her mind rebelling against the intrusion and the amount of psychic energy that she had just channeled. After making sure that her walls were strong enough that the Master couldn’t get back in, he withdrew from Rose’s mind.

He opened his eyes and glared coldly across the park. Since he had briefly connected with the other Time Lord’s mind before throwing him out, he had learned two things just then. The first was that the Master had something planned with the Eye of Harmony.

The second, and far more important, was that the Master had just voided any plans of mercy by violating Rose.

“I’m afraid we’re running out of time, Grace,” the Doctor said, startling the woman next to him. “If the Master opens the Eye of Harmony, we’ll have only a few hours to stop him.”

“The Master?” Grace asked.

He stood and offered her his hand. “Come, let’s get back to the house. I’ll explain everything there.”

~*~

When the Master had been thrown out of Rose’s mind, he had been furious. The Doctor was back and that would put a damper on his plans. However, when their minds had briefly connected, he had gotten the impression of an atomic clock. Somehow it was vital to the Doctor’s plans, and he knew that he had to get to it first.

However, there was something more important: namely, the Eye of Harmony.

The Doctor was connected to the TARDIS in ways that baffled nearly every Time Lord on Gallifrey- TARDISes were ships, nothing more, but the extent to which the Doctor had bonded with the ship and the ship to him was unique. The TARDIS had been old even when he had stolen it from the museum, and mostly organic- it had been primarily used as a survey vessel and therefore had a bare minimum of controls and commands. The extent to which the Doctor had modified the TARDIS was truly outstanding and the envy of many, but most simply regarded it as an oddity.

Truth be told, the Master didn’t really care one whit about the Doctor’s TARDIS. True, he often tried to steal it to escape whatever planetoid he happened to be on, but part of that was because he knew that it would cause the Doctor pain to see his home snatched from him. And while he was curious as to what made this particular model have such a strong personality, it was merely a means to an end. Right now, it would provide the necessary power to give him the Doctor’s remaining regenerations.

He found Lee in the Cloister room and grinned. This was almost too easy.

“The TARDIS really likes you, if you found Her Heart so easily,” he commented, and the boy jumped.

“Don’t scare me like that!” he exclaimed, then paused. “What do you mean, the heart?”

The Master gestured. “This room. It’s called the cloister room, and that-” he pointed to the sphere in the ground- “is the Eye of Harmony. It’s what powers the TARDIS.” He sighed and looked around. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in here. I almost forgot what it looked like.”

Lee looked behind him. “What happened to Rose?”

“I… told her some ugly truths. She didn’t handle it well,” he replied and swiftly changed the subject. “But with the Eye, we can find the Doctor, and I will once again reclaim what is rightfully mine.”

Lee looked interested. “Really? How?”

“See if you can pull this reflector staff from it’s mooring,” the Master replied. 

Lee looked wary, but gripped the carved wooden staff and pulled it up. It resisted at first, but finally there was a low rumble and the piece of wood was lifted and removed with ease. Blue light poured from the newly revealed hole.

“Now look into it,” the Master ordered.

Lee wasn’t so sure, and took an uncertain step back. “Why can’t you?”

“You’re the one who pulled the staff from the stone,” he replied, before grabbing the back of the boy’s head and shoving him towards it. Lee screamed, but before he could fight the TARDIS trembled. Slowly, so slowly, the Eye began to open. 

Lee stumbled from the Master’s grasp and watched, awed and frightened, as the dome opened like an iris and more blue light burst from it. At first nothing seemed to happen, then an image formed in the center of the blue light- a man, wearing a green velvet coat and a grey cravat, with curly auburn hair and bright blue eyes. 

“There he is,” the Master said. “The Doctor.”

The boy looked confused. “But… that’s the name of Rose’s husband. I thought he was… shorter.”

“The Doctor, like all of my species, has a way of cheating death,” the Master replied. “He looks so young! He always was vain,” he mused.

Lee gestured at the image. “So now what?”

The Master smiled. “Now we wait. Eventually, we will see everything that he does.”

~*~

The Doctor knew the instant the Eye was opened. Even if he hadn’t felt his connection to the TARDIS get cut off, he would have felt in the reverberation of the world around him, the immense power of the Eye warping reality. Soon, he knew, the city would be affected, and if the Master wasn’t stopped, the entire world would soon be at the mercy of the Master, who could use the Eye to reshape Earth to his will. 

He took a deep breath and calmed himself. Grace was fixing coffee in the kitchen and he focussed intently at his feet. If he could just access enough of the TARDIS to control what the Master saw…

“So what’s going on?” Grace demanded when she finally walked back into the room. “You said you would explain everything but you haven’t said one peep!”

He looked at her and accepted the mug. “The first thing you must know about me is that I’m from a race of beings called Time Lords.”

Grace raised her eyebrows. “What, like royalty?”

The Doctor shook his head. “My people are from a planet called Gallifrey, where the civilization is so far advanced you can’t even imagine what we are able to accomplish. Travel through black holes, instantaneous travel across large distances… we mastered time and space travel eons ago, and now the Time Lords are mostly content with watching over the Universe as a whole.”

Grace laughed disbelievingly. “What, you expect me to believe you’re an alien?”

He met her gaze evenly. “You looked at my blood, Grace, and you know I have two hearts. Is it so hard to imagine?”

She paused. “What about Rose? Does she know?”

He tensed slightly. “Of course. She’s known from the very beginning. Human as they come, my Rose, and she still accepted me anyway. But she’s still on the TARDIS, recovering from the Master’s psychic attack. The sooner she gets back to me, the better.”

“Why?” Grace wondered.

The Doctor shot her a look. “If your spouse was in the hands of your enemy, wouldn’t you want them to get out as soon as possible?”

There was a dark light in his eyes that unnerved her. “Alright. What’s a TARDIS?”

“My ship,” the Doctor replied. “Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. I use Her to travel across the universe.”

Grace shook her head slowly. “This is… crazy. Completely and utterly crazy.”

“I can prove it,” he insisted. “You already have all the evidence in front of you.”

She carefully sat her mug down and got up. “I’m calling psychiatric,” she said, as she headed for the phone. “You are… delusional and crazy and I’ve put up with enough insanity in the past twenty-four hours than most people get in their entire lives.”

He scrambled up from his seat. “Grace, please, believe me,” he begged. “Our meeting was not coincidence, it was fate. You believe me, I know you do, just admit it!”

She dashed away from them and into the kitchen, slamming the door between them. She quickly dialled the hospital. “Hello? Yes, this is Doctor Grace Holloway. I need psychiatric immediately… yes, I’ll hold.” 

Grace bounced on her feet impatiently as the Doctor pleaded with her. “Look, the Master has opened the Eye of Harmony. I’ll prove it to you.”

She stared as the wood of her door warped and the Doctor’s hand was pushed through. The voice in her ear startled her and she closed her eyes in gratitude. “Yes, hello, I need an ambulance and one bed in the ward.”

“Please, Grace, by midnight the entire world will be the Master’s clay,” the Doctor begged as his hand warped back through to the other side. His voice was muffled. “It’s already nine. I need your help.”

Grace let out a frustrated groan. “You know what? Better make that two beds.”

The woman on the other end of the phone gave the confirmation. She sighed in relief, hung up, and shrieked when she noticed the door open.

“Get out of my house!” Grace yelled, ducking around the island. 

He held his hands up. “I’m not trying to hurt you, I swear,” he begged. “But if you don’t help me I’ll die! The Master opened the Eye of Harmony so that he could force me to look into it. If I do, my soul will be destroyed and my body will be his!”

“You’re insane!” she spat.

~*~

The Master glared at the images that were coming across. “Listen to all those lies,” he exclaimed, watching as the two ran around the island. “Trying to convert yet another innocent to his side.”

Lee hid his uncertainty. “She doesn’t believe him, does she?” The Doctor didn’t seem like the evil dictator that he had been made out to be. He just sounded… scared. 

“I wouldn’t know,” the Master mused. “Regardless, I must find out his plan.”

~*~

Grace had made her way upstairs, but the Doctor had cornered her in the bathroom. “Why won’t you leave me alone?” she begged. “Go… go rescue Rose, and get her to help, I’m just a cardiologist with… with bad taste in men!” 

The Doctor wringed his hands. “Grace, you’re the only one who knows this city. Rose and I are only visitors; I can’t ask just anyone. I need the atomic clock here in San Francisco to fix the timing mechanism on the TARDIS and close the Eye. That way the Master’s plan won’t succeed and Rose and I can bring him back to Gallifrey, where he’s supposed to be.”

Grace was nearly at her wits end. This time last night she had killed a man because his two hearts had caused her to become lost, and now that same man had presumably risen from the grave as the one before her, bashed his way out of his storage unit, and wandered around the hospital until he saw a face he remembered- the face that had killed him. But instead of hating her or enacting revenge he was begging her for help, spewing out a story about aliens and spaceships and reality imploding. 

And she believed him, which was the scariest thing of all.

One day ago, she had been in a comfortable, if slightly boring, relationship. One day ago, she had been the top-ranked cardiologist in the nation. One day ago, she had been assured of her lot in life and had been content with the knowledge it would be like that for years.

And then a man had gotten shot and everything had turned upside-down.

Grace knew she was borderline hysterical, but all her knowledge insisted that the man in front of her couldn’t exist, and yet he clearly was. Not only that, but he had a wife who had gone from crying onto Grace’s shoulder to firmly believing her husband was still alive. Which he was. Even though he had died, because she was the one who killed him.

“Why are you asking me to help you?” Grace finally cried out. “I’m the one who killed you last night, I’m the one who caused all this to happen!”

He stilled, and finally looked at her with deep compassion. “Oh, Grace,” he said. “None of this is your fault. You didn’t know. How could you? I’ve already forgiven you for it. And don’t worry. You’ll forgive yourself one day, too.”

~*~

The Master ignored the rest of the conversation, laughing to himself. “So that’s how he plans on stopping me. Wishful thinking and a grain of hope. How very… typical.”

Lee stared at the woman in the image. “That’s Doctor Holloway. She’s the one that operated on him last night and killed him.”

“So if we find her, we find the Doctor,” the Master mused. “And she’s already called an ambulance.”

“What’s an ambulance got to do with anything?” Lee asked, confused.

The Master grinned. “What do you think? It looks like Bruce is making a comeback.”

~*~

The Doctor stepped onto the balance while Grace watched critically. “What are you doing?” she asked. “You were just on there.”

“Look,” he said, as the dial dropped to 150. “Look at that.”

She stared. “That’s… you lost ten pounds in ten minutes.”

“The Eye is already starting to affect reality. Soon we’ll have people walking through walls, people teleporting to the other side of the planet, trees and plants changing shape if not species. We have to hurry.”

Grace swallowed. “What about Rose? You said she was with the Master.”

His expression hardened. “She’s fine. I can see her reuniting with us in the future- and besides, the TARDIS will protect her. The Eye may be open, but She can still control Herself.” He stepped off the balance. “What’s that noise?”

“The television,” she said, tersely. “I’m watching the news.”

He walked over to the small monitor and stared at it intently. “...strange natural phenomena,” the reporter said. “Since early this evening, Bay Area tides have risen to levels that break all records for this time of year. Flood warnings have gone out along the Napa and Russian rivers, and believe it or not, in Hawaii it has even started snowing.”

“Grace, come here,” he said. “You need to listen to this.”

“You may be wondering what this has to do with the millennium,” the report continued as Grace walked over. “Scientists say that the freak conditions are due to the very slight fluctuations in the Earth's gravitational pull. Fluctuations that apparently only happen once every thousand years. Here's what our cameras in Hawaii-”

“I love humans,” the Doctor said, speaking over the reporter in amusement. “Always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.”

The weather report apparently over, the reporter switched to a more relevant topic. “And most fashionable San Franciscans are going tonight to ring in the new year,” she said. She turned to her colleague. “And of course, you'll be there, won't you?”

The other woman smiled. “Naturally. Now, didn't you say they'll see a clock getting started?”

“That's right,” the first reporter replied as Grace and the Doctor watched, Grace occasionally looking out the window for the ambulance. “And you know, it isn't just any old clock. It happens to be the most accurate atomic clock in the world, and it's right here in the Institute of Technological Advancement and Research in downtown San Francisco, so don't go away.”

“That’s it,” the Doctor said intently. “That’s the clock I need.”

“The ambulance is here,” Grace said. 

He nodded. “Excellent, they can take us straight to the institute.”

Grace opened the door to reveal a man with dark hair, a defined jaw and cheekbones, and wearing dark-tinted sunglasses. 

The Doctor joined her and stared intently at the man. Before Grace could ask what was wrong, however, the Doctor spoke up. “We need to go directly to the Institute of Technological Advancement and Research.” He brushed past the paramedic. “Do you know where that is?” he called over his shoulder as he hurried to the ambulance. 

“Of course I do,” the man said calmly. Grace gave a weak smile and hurried after the Doctor.

~*~

Rose groaned as she awoke, head pounding and eyes gritty. She snuggled into the pillows for a few seconds, loathe to leave her bed, as memories trickled back to her. She remembered the Doctor getting shot and regenerating, finding Lee and the Master in the console room, and then…

She gasped and bolted upright, ignoring the nausea and searching for the Bond. The Doctor’s mind was heavily shielded, but he instantly wrapped his essence around her, comforting her. _Where are you?_ she asked, worried, as she crawled out of their bed.

_On my way to the Institute of Technological Advancement and Research. There’s a beryllium clock there that will help me close the Eye of Harmony. Are you okay?_

_I feel like I got stomped on by an elephant_ , she groused. _Remind me to never engage the Master in combat again._

_You’ll never have to deal with him again if I have anything to say about it,_ the Doctor growled. _He tried breaking your mind, Rose. If I hadn’t remembered…_

_It’s okay. I’m fine. I’ll just go shut the Eye and…_

_NO!_ he practically shouted and Rose winced. _The only one that can close it is Lee, since he was the one that opened it. If you tried… you’ll be lucky if you burned up. I don’t even know if the properties of the Key will save you._

_Okay. But the TARDIS is in pain, Doctor. It hurts to do nothing._

_Meet me at the Institute, Rose. The Master is bringing us there now._

She paused. _You’re letting the Master drive you to the clock that you need?_

_Better here with me than there with you_ , he replied, softly. _How’s that old saying go? Keep your friends close but your enemies closer?_

_Be safe. I don’t want to lose you again._

_I’ll see you later, Rose. I love you._

Though she was worried sick about him, and slightly angry that the Master got to see the Doctor’s new form before she could, she couldn’t help but smile at his parting words. Last him had been so infuriatingly tight-lipped that she was lucky if she got even a little bit of honesty from him. _I love you too._

She stepped out of the room and headed through the console room, stopping for a moment to lay a hand on the console and send reassurance to the TARDIS. The console flickered weakly in acknowledgment.

With a deep breath she stepped out of the TARDIS and walked towards the nearest street, hailing a taxi. With any luck, she’d arrive before them.


	6. Chapter 6

Grace was sitting numbly in the back of the ambulance. The Doctor had been dozing for the last few minutes, and the paramedic was sitting comfortably across from them. When the Doctor finally opened his eyes, he glanced at Grace. “What time is it?”

“Half past ten,” she said. “There’s a lot of traffic.”

The Doctor frowned. “Bit more than ‘a lot’.”

“It’s New Years Eve,” the paramedic reminded them. 

“And this is an ambulance!” the Doctor replied, aggravated. “They should be moving out of our way! Bloody 1999, backwards planet, backward morals…”

Grace glared at him. “Well I’m sorry for not living up to your high and mighty Time Lord standards! We can only live one day at a time, you know!” She looked at the paramedic. “If saying he was an alien wasn’t enough, he insists on being called ‘Doctor’! Freud had a name for that.” 

“Transference,” the paramedic replied. 

“Very witty, Grace,” the Doctor grumbled. “At least Freud would have taken me seriously.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “He would have hung up his pipe if he met you.”

“We did meet, actually,” he replied.

“Oh right, travels in time!” Grace said, crossing her arms. “And will you stop twitching! You’re making me nervous and I don’t know why!”

He looked offended. “I knew Freud very well!”

“Did you know Madame Curie too?” Grace shot back.

“Intimately,” he nodded. “She and Rose really hit it off. We had tea with her three months ago, in fact.”

“Did you forget about Rose and kiss her, too?” Grace demanded. “Or do you kiss every female you see and compare them to Rose?”

“You’re a much better kisser,” the paramedic replied and they both turned to stare at him.

The ambulance slammed to a halt and the lurched, the paramedic’s sunglasses falling off. Grace staggered to the door to peer out the windshield. “A truck’s blocking all the lanes,” she reported.

The Doctor, however, was much more interested in the Master. He had quickly replaced the glasses, but not before the Doctor had gotten a good look at his eyes- snake eyes, he saw. That wasn’t good- he was reverting back to his temporary form, which would make him desperate.

He stood and peered over Grace’s shoulder. “The planet’s about to be destroyed and I’m stuck in a traffic jam. Excuse me,” he said, and jerked the sunglasses off before grabbing the fire extinguisher.

Grace looked at the paramedic and stared in horror at his eyes; he hissed and reared his head back. Grace screamed and covered her face as he spat something at her. The Doctor aimed the extinguisher and fired it at the Master, yelling at Grace to open the door. She did so, dragging him out. “What’s on me?” shouted, terrified.

“No time, just run!” the Doctor told her.

In the ambulance, the Master was writhing. “Get it off! Get it off!” he yelled and Lee raced to the back to help.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was already pulling Grace along behind them as they raced towards the road block. He would run all the way to the Institute if he had to (and probably make it on time), but Grace didn’t have the stamina or strength. Mind whirling, he found what he was looking for when a police officer hopped off his motorcycle to apprehend them. “Sir, Ma’am, go back to your vehicle!” he ordered.

The Doctor immediately began digging in his coat pocket, and the police officer reached for his gun. Grace panicked. “Wait! Stop!” she exclaimed. “He’s British.”

The officer paused, confused. “What has that got to do with anything, ma’am?”

“I am, aren’t I?” the Doctor replied. Then he held out a brown paper bag. “Jelly baby, officer?”

Grace stared. Where did that come from? The pockets in his- rather tight- breeches weren’t big enough and she certainly didn’t have them in her house. 

“Jelly baby?” the officer asked, confused.

Grace sighed. “Just take it.” 

The officer looked at them suspiciously for a moment before finally reaching into the bag. He pulled one out and stared at it before biting into it, at which point the Doctor lunged for the man’s gun. “Now would you stand beside before I shoot myself,” he said, pleasantly, and aimed it at his chest.

Grace stared at him, horrified. The policeman was equally panicked. “Now, sir, don’t be a fool…”

“Are you with me, Grace?” the Doctor asked, inching closer to the motorcycle. 

She looked between the two men, helpless, wondering why her life had become so insane. “Doctor, are you crazy?” she shrieked, and, at his look, she gestured at the police officer. “You don’t stand a chance!”

“Grace,” he said, and stared at her intently. “I came back to life before your eyes. I held back death. I can’t make your dream come true forever, but I can make it come true today.”

She tore her eyes away from his, emotions rolling within her. Her mind recalled everything she had been through, all that he had done, and everything she had seen. And then there had been Rose’s words, so confident that her husband was alive, that she would see him again.

The last of her doubt vanished. “Give me the gun,” she told him, and held out her hand.

The Doctor frowned slightly, but did as he was told. The police officer was relieved, but before he could make a move Grace shot the radio. “Oh god,” she said, then redirected the gun with shaking hands. “Stand aside, or I’ll shoot!”

“I would never have guessed,” the Doctor said, admiringly. “Look at you! The mouse is gone.”

“Just shut up and start the engine,” she replied. 

The Doctor grinned and did so.

~*~

The Master staggered to the front of the ambulance. “Why aren’t you moving?”

“The road is still blocked,” Lee replied, helplessly.

“This is an ambulance!” the Master shouted. “Drive!”

Lee lurched and drove the the vehicle onto the sidewalk.

~*~

Grace had dropped the gun when the Doctor took off without warning, and tensed when she saw the ambulance approaching them. “I shouldn’t have dropped the gun,” she groaned. “Doctor, hurry up!”

“I’m trying!” he shouted back, urging the motorcycle to go faster. “Why did I lose my sonic? I could have us going mach three!”

“Your what?” Grace shouted. 

He gritted his teeth. “Nothing. Look out!”

She screamed when she noticed the sixteen-wheelers headed towards them in both lanes, and she clung to him, burying her face in his shoulder. The trucks blared their horns but the Doctor drove straight through them. The ambulance was forced off the road and onto the median, but it wasn’t long until it had caught back up.

~*~

The Master’s grip on the door frame was tight, and Lee gulped when he saw the material buckling slightly. “Don’t worry, we’ll beat them.”

“I’m not worried,” the Master hissed.

Ahead of them, the Doctor turned off at an exit, but Lee ignored him and continued down the highway.

“What are you doing?” the Master shouted.

“Trust me, this way’s quicker!” Lee replied. “I used to be a carjacker, and I’d bring the cars to a garage not far from here. We’ll get there at least five minutes before them.”

The Master smiled. “Well then, we better make it count.”

~*~

Grace screamed as the Doctor swerved to avoid a pile-up, and the motorcycle ran off the road to a dirt track beside a railroad. She clutched at him tighter. “I only have one life! Try to remember that!” she shrieked and the motorcycle was jerked back onto the road again.

“I’ll try!” he replied, only to swerve to miss oncoming traffic once more.

Grace hid her face on his shoulder again. His words weren’t much of a comfort, and maybe if she didn’t see what was coming, she could survive the trip without dying of fright.

Ten minutes later- and nearly three more crashes later, the Doctor truly was an awful driver- they finally pulled up to the institute. Grace practically crawled off the motorcycle, legs shaking, and the Doctor pulled grabbed the keys. “The ambulance is already here,” Grace groaned. “We’re too late.”

The Doctor frowned, but shook his head. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him. Three pairs of eyes are better than two.”

“Three?” Grace asked, confused. “But Doctor, there’s only two of us.”

He smiled. “Not anymore.”

A taxi pulled up to the curb and a familiar blonde woman jumped out of the back. “Doctor!” she exclaimed and ran to him. He took a few steps and bent to swing her up in his arms, Rose laughing as he spun her. When he set her down he immediately bent to kiss her, his arms wrapped around her and hers clutching his shoulders.

Grace looked away, embarrassed. When he had kissed her, she had been swept up in the moment and while she fancied him- who wouldn’t, he was gorgeous- it was clear that the kiss she received had been for nothing but excitement and gratitude. The way he kissed Rose was a kiss that had been performed hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. 

They eventually broke away and pressed their foreheads together. To outsiders it looked like a tender moment, but between them it was so much more. They were whispering to each other through their Bond, healing the damage that his regeneration had caused until the link was blazing as brightly as ever. 

“You look incredible,” Rose whispered when they finally pulled away. But not apart- not that. “You’re so tall now too. That’ll take some getting used to.”

“Not as tall as I have been,” he pointed out. He threaded their hands together and he grinned, delighted. “And, as always, a perfect fit.”

Rose flicked his cravat. “Very dapper. Though I kinda miss the jumper. Say what you will about the design, it was warm.”

“Always looked better on you anyway,” he shrugged. “Pity the hospital kept my clothes.”

“We can always rescue them with the TARDIS later,” Rose replied. “Time machine.”

He chuckled. “You just want the hat for your little collection, don’t you?”

Rose grinned. “Let’s see. I have your recorder, your opera cape, the scarf, your beige jumper, the cat pins, and the hat.”

The Doctor smiled and nuzzled her cheek with his nose. “It’d be interesting seeing you wear everything at once. Although I am jealous. One day that horde of yours might disappear.”

“You’ll never find it,” she singsonged and she was still giggling when he kissed her again.

Grace finally cleared her throat. “I hate to break up the happy reunion, but we have to find the Master, remember?”

The Doctor broke the kiss with a nip at her bottom lip and, through their bond, a promise to continue later causing Rose to shiver in anticipation. “How am I going to get into the party though?” Rose asked. “I’m not exactly dressed for it.”

“Say you’re dressed as a modern woman,” the Doctor said, confidently, and ushered her in.

“Grace Holloway, plus two,” Grace said to the receptionist.

They frowned. “Says here you’re bringing plus one.”

The Doctor looked distressed and took on a more pronounced accent. “Oh, no. Surely, my Lady, you weren’t left off the guest list?”

Rose affected a haughty air. “I was warned the colonies were disorganized, but never to this extreme.”

The receptionist eyed them nervously. “If you could just tell me your name…”

“You don’t recognize her?” the Doctor asked, offended. 

Rose frowned. “I guess that money was for nothing. That’s gratitude, I suppose. Should have stayed at Buckingham, Mother did warn me that Americans were rude. John, when is the next flight to England?”

“Two hours, with a layover in New York,” he replied. 

The receptionist had looked more and more agitated as they spoke, and he finally managed to catch the eye of the event coordinator. “Is there a problem?” the coordinator asked, stiffly. 

“Problem!” the Doctor exclaimed. “Of course there’s a problem! Ms Holloway here reserved for two people, and only one is on the guest list! The Duchess here had been dropped off of your own list!”

“She mentioned Buckingham,” the receptionist hissed.

“Can I please see your invitation?” The coordinator asked.

Rose reached into her pocket and withdrew the psychic paper. The Doctor hid his surprise. It had been years since he had seen it or even thought about it, much less used it. 

The coordinator paled, but he held himself together remarkably well. “My apologies, Madame. You and your companions are free to enter. My utmost apologies for our error.”

“Quite,” Rose sniffed, and she swept onto the dance floor with an air of haughty indignation and annoyance, Grace and the Doctor following after her.

Once they were out of sight of the workers, the Doctor turned a mischievous smile to Rose and she burst out laughing. They leaned against each other for a moment before controlling themselves. “The look on his face!” Rose giggled.

“You were an-” he glanced at the paper- “excellent Duchess of Balmory. Does that even exist?”

“Dunno. Worked, didn’t it?” Rose teased.

Grace shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you,” she announced. “How on Earth did that work?”

“Psychic paper,” Rose said as she gave it to Grace. The words How do you do? appeared on it. “It shows the viewer what you want them to see, or what they expect to see. Dead useful in getting into areas you normally can’t.”

“Why haven’t I used this before?” he asked. 

“Because you nearly got thrown into that pit of digestive fluids on Petrivore Alpha,” Rose reminded him.

“Ah. Right,” he nodded. “I remember now. They thought I was the devil.”

Rose looked around the room in concern. “There’s a lot of people here.”

The Doctor looked amused. “We’ll find him, Rose. He must have used a back way in, because I can’t see him.”

Rose looked around. “Grace, do you know how to get to the clock?”

“I’m assuming he knows,” she replied, nodding in direction of the security guard. 

The man stopped them before they could go further. “I’m sorry, no one beyond this point,” the man replied.

Grace smiled winningly. “Oh, this is Doctor Bowman. They’re waiting for him back there, so if we could just-”

“You will wait out here with the others,” the guard said, firmly, and Grace knew a lost battle when she saw one.

Rose, however, wasn’t done. “I was wondering if you’ve seen a paramedic lately? Has a teenager with him, probably wearing sunglasses.”

The security guard frowned. “No, I haven’t.”

Rose looked nervous. “Look, if you see him, just… keep an eye on him, please? He was giving me these… these looks, and I’m pretty sure his identification was false. My dad was a paramedic and his ID looked… wrong.”

The guard looked concerned. “I’ll be sure to keep an eye out, ma’am, and pass along the message. He won’t get far.”

“Thank you,” Rose replied, relieved, and re-joined the Doctor and Grace.

The Doctor looked delighted. “Rose Tyler, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that devious streak. I rubbed off on you a bit too much.”

She patted his cheek. “Done more than that, love. Now, since the Master is going to be hindered and we can’t get to the clock anyway, we might as well enjoy ourselves.”

Grace moved to the buffet line as the Doctor swept Rose to the impromptu dance floor, waltzing her slowly. She smiled and leaned her head on his chest. “It’s been a while since we’ve done this.”

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” he said, softly, and Rose looked up at him. “Before I regenerated. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to warn you. When the TARDIS crash-landed I had a terrible foreboding that something disastrous would take place, and all I could think about was keeping you safe. If I had known what would occur…”

She shushed him. “It’s all right, Doctor. You’re here now, we’re together. We’ll stop the Master and save the TARDIS, and then I’ll find out just what this body is made out of.”

He smiled. “If it wasn’t so terribly rude to Grace or the people at this party, I would suggest we find an empty room.”

“Oh, I think I’m gonna like you,” Rose teased and he laughed as he swept her into a new dance.

Eventually, the patrons were called to dinner and the three of them were escorted to a table. “So,” Grace asked when they sat down, “how are we going to get that clock on the back of a bike?”

“We only need the tiniest piece of it,” the Doctor replied, Rose’s hand in his as he stroked the back of it. 

Grace looked dubious. “But you could have found beryllium anywhere! There’s probably lots of labs that are less conspicuous and probably easier to get into than some glitzy New Year’s Eve party.”

“It’s not the beryllium, it’s what the beryllium is in,” the Doctor replied. “If I just needed beryllium, I wouldn’t have left the TARDIS. But the beryllium in that clock is already modified and contained in a computer chip that I need for the TARDIS. It would have taken too long to create one on my own.”

“Why not just go back in time to grab it before it got here, though?” Grace asked. “You keep saying you have a time machine, after all.”

Rose shook her head. “It’s not that simple. Once we land somewhere, we’re a part of established events. Going back in time would prevent us landing here, but only by landing here did we know to go back in time, and if we cross Timelines like that it’ll create a paradox. Trust me, those aren’t pretty.”

“Are you a Time Lord too?” Grace asked her. Despite the Doctor’s earlier assurances, she still had her doubts.

“Nope! Human,” Rose replied. “Well, mostly. Maybe not that human at all, come to think of it, but I like to consider myself one.”

At Grace’s confusion the Doctor chuckled. “Rose is… unique, in the Universe. She’s human in all the ways that matter most, though.”

“Can you regenerate too?” Grace asked.

Rose shook her head. “So far as we know, once I die, I’m dead. But I heal a lot faster than normal and can withstand injuries far greater than a human. I rarely get sick, too, which is nice, but when I’m hurt I still feel it.”

“So what about… the Master, isn’t that his name?” Grace asked. “He’s a Time Lord too, isn’t he?”

Rose and the Doctor exchanged uneasy glances. “He’s on his last life, fighting to survive,” the Doctor finally answered. “And the science has shown us over and over, in the fight for survival there are no rules.”

“He’s desperate,” Rose replied. “And desperate people are dangerous.”

A man walked up to the table, and Grace was relieved for the distraction. “Professor Wagg!” she said, and gestured to the Doctor. “This is Doctor Bowman and his wife, Rose. Doctor, this is Professor Wagg, who created the clock you see.”

The Doctor leapt up out of his seat and shook the professor’s hand happily. He was a small man, with balding hair and glasses, and looked at the Doctor in confusion. “Doctor Bowman, eh? Can’t say I’ve heard of you.”

“Oh, well, I am from London,” the Doctor replied amicably. “And I have to say, I find the work you did on the clock fascinating. I was just wondering-”

Rose swatted his arm. “Doctor, rude,” she chided. “Terribly sorry, professor. My husband tends to get a bit over excited on new technological advances, and doesn’t always stop to think that not everyone wants to share them.”

Professor Wagg eyed the Doctor. “I see. Well, wish all could share your enthusiasm over astronomical advancement.”

The Doctor smiled charmingly. “Yes, yes, it is a shame. Still, you must have been brilliant for constructing it, it’s a mighty fine machine, if I say so myself.”

A waiter nearly collided into Rose, and a few seconds passed until all three righted themselves again. “Sorry,” Rose replied. 

“Quite alright,” the professor replied. “Hope you have a lovely night.”

He departed, and Rose grinned and held up the ID tag. “So, who wants to go look at a clock?”

The Doctor beamed and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “I knew teaching you how to pickpocket would come in handy.”

Grace shook her head. “You are completely mad.”

There weren’t many people near the clock, but the ID gave them access and they quickly went to the clock. “This is when I wish I had my sonic screwdriver,” the Doctor grumbled.

Rose held out her own. “You mean this?”

He beamed. “Excellent.” Seconds later the back was off and he slid out the control panel, carefully removing a small computer chip. “See, Grace? Small.”

“What is it they say?” she replied, amused.

The Doctor grinned. “Yeah, they say it on mine, too.”

“Because you’re always the one causing them to say it,” Rose teased. 

He smirked at her but carefully replaced the circuitry and panels, sonicking the device once more before standing. “Right. Ladies, shall we?”

Rose took his arm. “We shall.”

They had barely taken three steps when another security guard approached, unamused. “And what are you three doing?”

“I know you,” the Doctor said, surprised.

The guard raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “You do, huh?”

“Gareth,” the Doctor replied, startling the guard, “answer the second question on your mid-term exam, not the third. The third may look easier, but you’ll mess it up.”

The man looked confused. “What?”

“Remember, second question. Don’t forget!” 

“I… won’t,” Gareth replied. “Now can I see what’s in your hand, sir?”

The Doctor revealed a jelly baby.

Gareth took it, blinking, and they swept away. “What was that about?” Grace asked as they snuck past the reporters once more.

“Ten years from now, Gareth will head the Seismology unit of the UCLA Task Force, and devise a system of accurately predicting earthquakes,” the Doctor replied.

Rose looked up at him. “Looks like this you has a bit of pre-cognition.”

“Seems so, doesn’t it?” he mused. “Last body was good with mental mind games, and the one before that was an excellent analytical thinker. It’s been a while since I’ve had Time-related talents.”

Grace looked between them. “You really mean that? About Gareth?”

The Doctor nodded. “Of course. His inventions save the human race several times, but first he must graduate in poetry.”

“Poetry?!”

“Nothing wrong with a good poet,” the Doctor replied, frowning at her. “I might fancy myself a poet, you know!”

Rose interrupted them. “You can discuss the language of love later, we have bigger problems,” she said and they looked at where she was pointing. The Master and Lee had finally found their way to the ballroom, and were looking around the tables for them. “Come on, we have to leave before we’re spotted.”

They hurried from the balcony, turning a corner when they saw the exit sign. They screeched to a halt, however, when the saw the security guards lined up, frozen. “The Master?” Rose asked, quietly, when she saw the strange mucous that covered them.

“You’re lucky it only got your wrist, Grace,” the Doctor replied. “Looks like the Master is up to his old mind tricks again.” He turned and smashed the button for the fire alarm, then took off running.

Rose was already barring the door with a fire axe. “What now?” she asked and the Doctor grabbed the fire hose. 

“You ladies afraid of heights?” he asked. 

“You better not be thinking what I think you are,” Rose said, forbiddingly.

Grace gulped. “What is he thinking?”

Rose placed her hands on her hips. “How are all three of us getting down, eh? Only one of us can hang on to you!” 

“Up and at them!” the Doctor said again, ignoring her, as he scurried up the ladder to the roof.

When the two finally joined him he looked at Grace. “What do you think of skydiving?”

“Terrified of heights,” she replied and jumped when the Doctor tied the hose around her waist. “What are you-”

“Sorry!” he said and pushed her off the edge.

Grace screamed, but the Doctor had grabbed a hold of the hose and was quickly letting her fall at a controlled rate. “I hate you!” Grace screamed, as she clung to the hose fearfully.

“You’ll forgive me eventually!” he shouted back. Only when she was safely on the ground did the Doctor turn to Rose. “You know, I was going to sweep you off your feet in quite a different fashion.”

Rose laughed. “Are you kidding? This is a regular date for us.” With a smile she grabbed the hose and hopped off the roof, carefully climbing down. 

The Doctor looked over his shoulder to where the Master was attempting to beat down the door. “Hurry up Rose, I’m having company in a moment.”

“Going as fast as I can, dear,” she grumbled.

When she finally touched down the Doctor wrapped the hose around a nearby ventilation shaft, and after testing the slack leaned off the roof and quickly slid down the hose. He landed with a stumble, Rose catching him. “Right. We’d best get out of here; the Master broke through the door when I started coming down.”

“The motorcycle won’t hold three,” Grace reminded him.

The Doctor grinned. “I can wire a vehicle. Besides, Lee probably left the keys in the ignition of the ambulance.”

Sure enough, the keys were still there, and it was a matter of seconds to hop in and drive away. Rose joined him in the passenger seat, since she had had quite enough with being in the back of the vehicle.

“Is he really this bad a driver?” Grace asked, clinging to the doorframe.

“Worse,” Rose admitted, ruefully, and the Doctor shot her a mock-glare before shaking his head. “What? It’s true! Romana was a much better pilot.”

He took a hand off the steering wheel and waggled a finger at his wife. Grace grabbed the frame in fear. “I believe you are misremembering things. Romana was barely the pilot. It is my ship, after all.”

“And yet when she was in charge of coordinates we always landed where we were supposed to go,” she shot back.

“That was the tracer, not Romana,” he sniffed.

“And she read the coordinates that the tracer gave her,” she said.

Grace blinked. “Tracer?”

“Long story,” they said together.

Grace looked at the Doctor. “So. Pre-cognition.”

“Seems like it,” he said easily.

She hesitated, but continued. “Do you know what happens to me?”

The Doctor’s smile faded slightly. “You don’t want to know.”

“You can’t not tell me!” she insisted, but the expression on his face didn’t bode well. She forced a laugh. “Oh no, don’t tell me. Brian moves back in!”

“It’s not that simple, Grace,” the Doctor said gently. “The Universe hangs by such a fragile thread of coincidences. I can nudge people here or there to set them on the path they are meant to be on, but telling a person someone’s destiny is… dangerous. If I had told Gareth that he would one day be a seismologist he could have dropped his English classes and started geology. That would prevent him meeting Penelope Haines, his future wife, whose father is an electrician. And without meeting Penelope’s father he would have never been inspired to create the device that would have prevented his death. Do you see? If I told you what was in store for you, you could prevent it, and countless of lives that would have been saved would be in jeopardy.”

Rose looked at her in compassion. “Don’t worry, Grace. Just because he’s not telling you doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means you haven’t completed what you were meant to do, yet.”

Grace nodded, silently, and sat down on the bench to contemplate what she had been told.


	7. Chapter 7

The TARDIS had been undisturbed, and Rose hopped out of the ambulance, already reaching for her key. “Oh, you beautiful thing,” she cooed and opened the doors. The Doctor rushed in after her.

“It’s a police box!” Grace shouted at them. “What are you doing in a police box?”

The Doctor stuck his head out the door. “It’s a cloaking device, and got stuck on a previous misadventure. I rather like it. So are you coming in or are you going to stand outside all night?”

Grace paused and then noticed that her shoes seemed to be sinking into the ground. “I’ll come in.”

She stepped inside and stared in wonder as the Doctor closed the doors behind her. “Oh my,” she gasped. “It’s… amazing.”

“Doctor, the TARDIS doesn’t sound too good,” Rose announced from her position by the console. “The Eye being opened is killing her.”

Grace became aware of a constant thrumming. “What is that?”

“The cloister bell,” the Doctor replied. “A warning. Rose, check the status on the connection to the Vortex.”

She did so. “Not good. We don’t have enough power to move an inch.”

The Doctor opened a section of the console. “Beryllium chip, please.”

Rose handed it to him and he began attaching wires to it. “Seems pretty low tech,” Grace frowned. “Is that a television dial?”

“Low tech?!” the Doctor asked, affronted. “Grace, this is a Type 40 TARDIS! It’s able to take you to any planet in the universe and to any date in that planet's existence. Temporal physics at it’s finest!”

Rose grinned. “And yet, Romana has a TT-160. Compared to hers, the old girl is pretty low tech.”

“The 160’s are rubbish,” the Doctor scoffed. “Nothing but a conveyor belt. Its information storage capability is nothing compared to mine.” He finally attached the chip. “Yes! There! The eye is closing!”

The cloister bell abruptly stopped, but the TARDIS stayed dark. Rose looked around uneasily. “Doctor, this doesn’t look good.”

He quickly ran to the monitor. “Come on!” he said, banging on the console a few times. The TARDIS whined in protest, but finally showed him the data. He paled. “That’s not good.”

“What?” Grace asked, uneasily.

“I’ve a horrible feeling we’re already too late.”

Rose joined him “But, it’s 11:48. We have eleven minutes…”

“It was a guess!” he replied. “I didn’t know for sure. Just, let me try…” He pressed a few buttons and the ceiling shimmered, revealing the expanse of space. “I’m setting the coordinates for one minute after midnight. If I’m right…”

They watched in silent horror as the Universe seemed to implode on the screen. “There is no future,” he added, quietly.

Grace was shaking. “Everything… everything is destroyed. We’re all dead. Is that why you didn’t want to tell me the future? Because I die in all this?”

Rose touched her shoulder. “The Eye has never been opened, Grace, the Doctor didn’t know what would happen,” she said, gently. 

The Doctor was still studying the readouts. “We might have to go back before the Eye was open. Maybe even before we arrived.”

Grace looked worried. “But, didn’t Rose say that could cause a paradox?”

“Not in this case,” the Doctor replied. “Listen, it's complicated, but the two energies would cancel out, prevent the destruction. It’s not so much a paradox as a time loop.”

“Then do it!” Grace exclaimed.

He looked at her. “No power, remember? The Eye being opened drained the TARDIS.”

“Doctor, is there anything you can think of?” Rose asked, nervously. 

Grace shook her head. “You have to! What about all those glorious predictions? All that knowledge about what's going to happen to Gareth, to me, to this city? That must come from somewhere. Think!”

He looked helpless, and Rose reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. He looked at her and closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Grace,” he finally said, “how good are you at setting alarm clocks?”

She shook her head. “Not very. I always sleep through them. But I’ll try!”

He nodded. “Okay. Grace, Rose, listen very carefully. I’m going to pre-set the coordinates just as I divert the power from within the Eye itself into the time rotor here.”

“You’re going to jump start the TARDIS?” Rose asked.

He grinned. “I’m going to jump start the TARDIS! Grace, hit that top switch there. Rose, hand me my tool box, I have a bit of work to do.” He lifted up the grating and hopped down.

“Hope your hands are quick enough,” she replied.

The Doctor leered, a familiar fire in his blue eyes. “Oh Rose, you haven’t seen what these hands can do.” With a wink he vanished under the console.

She smirked. “I’ll hold you to that, Doctor,” she purred.

“Need the neutron ram!” he shouted. 

Rose shook her head and turned, only to see Grace picking it up. “How’d you know which one it was?” she asked, surprised.

“Lucky guess,” Grace replied and swung. Rose crumpled soundlessly.

The Doctor looked up from his work. “Rose? The neutron ram.” When there was no response he sighed. “Honestly, I thought you knew what it looked like, I’ve used it plenty of times before.” He hauled himself up and stared at the body of his wife. “Rose?”

Distracted as he was, he didn’t bother looking at Grace.

Grace smiled when both the Time Lord and his wife were knocked out, tossing the device in her hand as the Master entered the TARDIS. “Well done, Grace,” he purred. “Now help me get the Doctor to the Eye. Rose can be stored until I have… further use for her.”

Grace nodded and followed Lee outside. Before she left a nearby mirror caught her reflection- her eyes were completely black, and the skin around her wrist was grey and shrivelled. The Master smiled. She really had been too easy to hypnotise.

~*~

It was the work of moments to seal Rose under the console and get the Doctor onto the gurney, Grace and Lee moving him to the Eye. He stirred as soon as they stopped, the strain on the Timelines making him feel ill. He opened his eyes to a blurry image of Grace leaning over him.

“Grace, you’re an attractive woman, but I’m only interested in playing Doctors and nurses with Rose,” he groaned. 

Lee looked vaguely ill at that pronouncement but spoke up anyway. “She’s possessed, there’s not use talking to her.”

The Doctor blinked at him. “You! You took my things. Where are they?”

“They’re not your things anymore,” Lee frowned. “Pretty soon, everything around here is going to belong to the Master again.”

“Again?” the Doctor asked. “What’s he been telling you?”

Lee preened and moved around the Eye. “When the Master gets his body back, I’m going to be rich.”

The Doctor was disgusted. Humans, all the same. “And you believe him?” he asked, incredulously.

Lee raised his eyebrows. “Why shouldn’t I?”

“And I suppose he neglected to mention that there won't be any place to spend your money?” the Doctor shot back, but Grace slapped him. He wondered how long the Master had wanted to do that.

“And that is why we have no time to waste,” the Master intoned from the top of the stairs.

“But time to change,” the Doctor mocked.

The Master, wearing the Doctor’s own ceremonial robes, descended the stairs. “I always dress for the occasion,” he announced, smirking.

“Well I’m glad to see that you are aware of the gravity of the situation,” he groused. 

The Master scoffed. “I never liked this planet, Doctor. I would have chosen Plicea, since I dearly wish to get back at your precious Rose for what she did to me, but alas beggars cannot be choosers.”

“Well that’s good, because in a moment Earth will cease to exist,” the Doctor exclaimed, a spike of fear shooting through him at the mention of Rose. She wasn’t in the room, which was a good thing, but he feared what the Master had done to her. “What’s the time?”

The Master arched an eyebrow. “Time enough to get my body, get out of here, and take Lee with me.” He smiled as Lee joined him and wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulders. “Lee is the son I’ve always yearned for.”

“Oh please,” the Doctor scoffed as the Master pressed a kiss to the boy’s head.

The Master merely smirked. “Grace, put it on him. I suspect you know how.”

Grace reached under the gurney to reveal a circular device, which the Doctor knew to be a consciousness transference. His mind, soul, would be lost to the Eye, leaving his body uninhabited. He strained against the bonds holding him to the gurney. “Lee, this is my TARDIS. This is my Eye and I'm in my own body!” he pleaded. “The Master has run out of all his lives. Now he plans to steal mine. That's the truth! Just look at Grace, if he were as good as he said, why would he possess her?”

There was a hesitation in Lee’s eyes, he could see it- but before he could press the issue home, Grace put the circlet on his head, and pain coursed through him.

~*~

Rose awoke with a splitting headache, trapped in a small, cramped cubby. With a groan she felt around and recognized the feel of the console under her hands. She frowned, slightly, then felt the grating above her. How had she gotten in here? And more importantly, why was the grating in place? The Doctor would have known to check first, and she certainly didn’t replace it. 

She gingerly felt her head and winced when she felt the sticky trickle of blood. She remembered moving to take the tool from Grace, and then-

Oh. The Doctor had mentioned that Grace had been hit with whatever the Master had used to paralyze the guards. She must have been possessed.

She placed her hands on the grating and shoved, wincing at the effort. Someone must have placed something heavy on top of it so she couldn’t get out. She abandoned the effort and considered her options. She could try to work her way underneath the console and to the other side, where she could escape from, but that would require tight spaces and careful maneuvering she wasn’t sure she had time for. 

The TARDIS hummed weakly, and Rose looked up to see that the obstacle had been removed. She frowned. “You should have conserved your energy, love. I would have found my own way out.” She still patted the nearest bit of machinery she could reach, though, and moved the grating out of the way before climbing out.

The Doctor was heavily shielding their Bond, so she knew that he was in trouble. For some reason he thought that it would hide his pain from her, but it typically tipped her off more often than not. Though she felt nauseous and sore, and her headache wasn’t fading, she stumbled towards the cloister room, letting her abilities grow and gather around her. The Master would pay for what he had done to the Doctor.

~*~

The Doctor sagged in the crossbeam holding him up. The device was working its way through his consciousness, ripping and tearing at it, and he could feel his sanity unraveling. “Lee, please, this is your last chance!” he exclaimed.

Lee glared. “This is my only chance!”

The Master spoke up. “He’s right, Doctor. There’s nothing for him here. No family, no gang, no future! But with me, he gets to see the Universe!”

The Doctor struggled to breath. “This is his last chance to stay alive and you know it!”

“What do you know of last chances?” the Master demanded. 

“More than you!” the Doctor replied.

The Master stiffened. “I’ve wasted all my lives because of you, Doctor! You and Rose! And once I have taken your body, I’ll be free to take the power that Rose contains, and finally be Master of the Universe!”

Lee froze, eyes wide in confusion. The Doctor grinned in triumph. “All your lives!” he said, and the Master paused. “Didn’t you tell Lee that I had stolen them? Lee, he’s lying. He's used all his lives. Now he wants mine. Like I told you, this is my TARDIS, this my body!”

“Don’t believe him,” the Master ordered. “Open the Eye!”

The Doctor was beginning to shake, his vision going blurry. “All his lives! You heard him, Lee!”

In fear, Lee realized that the hope of escaping his life had been for nothing. “You lied to me,” Lee murmured. “You promised me freedom, money, a chance of a better life. You lied!”

The Master froze, shocked that the boy would refuse an order. The Doctor’s plan had worked, and he had walked into it. He smiled ruefully, then looked at Lee. “That’s not true,” he said, softly. “I have only wanted… to protect you,” he crooned, his hands reaching towards the boy’s head.

In the instant before he snapped the boy’s neck, there was a ripple of power, and Rose burst through the doors in a maelstrom of glowing blue energy. “Let. Him. Go,” she growled, eyes glowing gold.

The Master grinned. “Ah, Rose, so glad for you to join us. After all these years of keeping your powers hidden… what a relief to be able to see them.”

The Doctor groaned as the device on his head began feeding his consciousness back in a rush; disoriented, he struggled to focus. “Rose! Don’t…!” he coughed. “The Eye, you might trigger it…!”

“I think I have more control than you credit me for, Doctor,” Rose replied, and Grace gasped and fell to her knees as the Master’s possession ended. Lee raced over to help. “Lee, Grace, get to the console room and finish what the Doctor started.”

Grace nodded, nervously. “Right. I hope I know what I’m doing,” she muttered, but she was relieved to be elsewhere. The power that Rose was conducting was fearsome.

The Master watched her raptly. “What are you?” he asked. “Not human, not Time Lord… only a TARDIS can harness the power of the Vortex.”

“It’s been driving you insane, hasn’t it?” she asked. “Not knowing what I am. All you know is that I’m a weapon, one that the Doctor refuses to use. You want it for yourself, don’t you? The power, it calls to you.” She held up her hand, beckoning him, the power glowing. Her voice was a siren’s call as she spoke. “Come to me, Master, see if you can wield it. The power is all yours if you are strong enough…”

As if entranced he walked towards her. “The power of the Universe in my hands!”

Rose smiled as he took her hand. The blue glow whipped around them like a storm, a miniature tornado forming in the console room. “Do you see now, Master?” Rose crooned. “The power of life and death.”

He moved, but seemed to realize that he was at the mercy of Rose. “What… what’s happening?” he shouted. “What have you done?”

“I’m not a weapon,” she replied, the golden light consuming her. “I am a segment of the Key to Time, graced with Sentience by the Guardian herself. You, who wish dominion over all the living yet do nothing but kill, you think you can control me?”

The Doctor’s restraints vanished and he collapsed, gasping. “Rose, stop,” he croaked.

She ignored him. “Tell me, Master, what gives you the right to rule?”

“It is my destiny!” he shouted.

An electrical charge rocketed across the room, and all three looked up to see the static build up above the Eye- Grace and Lee, they had done it, they had jump started the TARDIS. Rose smiled. “You claim your destiny is to rule, and yet you have been outsmarted by one man and his brave, brilliant, _human_ companions.”

The Master lunged for her. “I will live forever, even if I have to kill you to do it!”

Rose’s eyes were sad. “You may regret that wish.”

He screamed as golden light enveloped him. The Doctor watched as he slowly dissolved into golden particles, which hovered in midair before condensing and warping in on themselves until there was nothing left. 

The swirling maelstrom of energy died down, and Rose staggered as it was pulled back into her. The Doctor lurched to her and reached for her, but they both fell to the ground in each other’s arms, gasping. “Rose, what…?” he wheezed.

“I cast him into the Vortex,” Rose said, softly. “I couldn’t kill him, even after all he’s done… he meant too much to you, the memories you once shared mean too much to you. But this way I could show a little mercy, and he won’t bother us again.”

He pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her hair. “It was a better fate than he deserved.”

“You aren’t…” she faltered, but at his questioning gaze she swallowed and tried again. “You aren’t mad?”

“Oh, Rose,” he sighed, and kissed her softly. “He would have killed you. You showed him a far greater kindness than he would have shown you.”

She shuddered, then pressed her lips to his desperately. The Doctor accepted the kiss gladly, pulling her against him, rolling so she was sprawled on top of him. She didn’t seem to mind, groaning as his hands worked themselves into her hair. She shifted restlessly on top of him, causing him to whimper when she angled her hips just right, and her hands had just touched the buttons of his jacket when Grace and Lee rushed into the cloister room. 

“The screen says something about... oh.” Grace paused, embarrassed. “We can, er, wait outside.”

Rose hid her face in the Doctor’s shoulder, smiling, as he cleared his throat. “Temporal Orbit? Is that what was said?”

They nodded and Rose rolled off of him. “We,” she told him, “are going to finish this later. Let’s get back to saving the world.”

He sat up with sigh and stood, hauling Rose to her feet. “Next time,” he murmured, “we won’t be interrupted.” With a devilish grin he took her hand and they sprinted from the room, laughing.

“What happened to the Master?” Lee asked as he and Grace watched them dash off.

Grace shrugged. “Who knows? At least he won’t bother us anymore.”

When they reached the console room the Doctor and Rose were humming Puccini, their voices blending together in a way that made Grace re-think about the way she thought of music. “Ah, there you are!” the Doctor said when he spotted them. “Come here. I want to show you something.”

He pressed a few buttons and the dome once more opened up, revealing the expanse of the galaxy. “Here we are, the future. A few days into the future, but the future nonetheless,” he smiled.

“It’s amazing,” Lee breathed. “All that is out there?”

The Doctor smiled. “Oh, that and so much more, Lee.There are planets and species that you can only dream about, and others that defy description.” Rose grinned and manipulated the viewscreen so that star systems and galaxies whipped by until a familiar orange-red planet appeared on the screen. He grinned at her. “And then there is home.”

“Gallifrey?” Grace asked.

He nodded. “Hundreds of billions of light years away. But that’s nothing to this old thing,” he replied, patting the console. “But let’s not dwell on that. You two are probably more interested in getting home.”

Both humans perked up. “Where are we now?” Grace asked.

“December twenty-ninth,” Rose replied. “Do you want us to let you off here?”

Lee and Grace exchanged glances. “I don’t think I could live through that again,” Grace admitted.

Lee smiled ruefully. “I definitely wouldn’t live through that again.”

“Reason enough,” the Doctor chuckled. “Rose, want to help me fly?”

She beamed. “Always.”

They moved around the console in a long-practiced dance, and when the TARDIS finally landed the Doctor smiled. “December thirty first, one minute before midnight. Go outside and you can join in on the celebration.”

Grace and Lee rushed outside, finding themselves back at the Institute. No one seemed to notice a blue police box materializing, and they were soon dragged off to celebrate.

“Show off,” Rose smiled as the countdown reached ten and they stepped out of the time ship. She placed her hands on his chest. “You could have landed somewhere a bit quieter.”

“Yes, I could have,” he agreed. “But I know how much you love a party.”

“That the only reason?” Rose teased, giving him that smile.

He smiled and pulled her to him. “Well, that and I wanted to get my timing right.”

She was about to ask him what he meant when the crowd shouted out ‘happy new year!’ and he bent down to kiss her deeply. Rose sighed and wrapped her arms around him, melting into the kiss and the feel of his arms around her, something she had thought she would never feel again just one day ago. When he finally broke the kiss, he smiled at her and pressed his forehead to hers.

 _Happy new year, Rose_ , he murmured through their Bond.

_Happy new year, Doctor._

Lee walked up to them. “Doctor, I almost forgot. Your things,” he said and handed him back the assortment of items he had taken, including the bag containing the gold dust.

“My sonic screwdriver!” the Doctor said, excitedly, and promptly stuffed everything in his pocket, except for the bag. “No, no, you keep that.”

Lee blinked. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” the Doctor replied and wrapped an arm around Rose’s waist. 

The boy grinned. “I’d better go before you change your mind.”

“Lee, wait!” the Doctor called out, and Lee looked back in confusion. “Next Christmas, take a vacation. Just don’t be here.”

He grinned and saluted before scampering off.

Grace walked up to them, laughing as she brushed confetti out of her hair. “I was going to get something from the buffet but the food is covered in paper! Who’s idea was it to launch a confetti cannon?”

“Some overzealous coordinator, I assume,” Rose laughed as the same person tripped by, singing ‘auld lang syne’ at the top of their lungs. “Gotta admit, though, it’s a nice party.”

Grace nodded. “I think I might stay a little longer. After all, I’m single now; who knows? Maybe I’ll meet Prince Charming. After all, it’s a new year! Anything can happen,” she smiled.

“If anyone can do it, you can,” the Doctor smiled. “Though, there’s something you should know…”

“No, Doctor,” Grace smiled. “Don’t tell me. I know who I am, and that’s enough.”

He hugged her. “I’m glad.” When he pulled away he looked at Rose, who nodded. “Do you want to come with us?”

She blinked. “Come with you?”

“All of time and space, Grace,” he replied. “You can travel the stars for months and return minutes after you left. No one needs to know you’re gone.”

She hesitated, looking between them. “I would love to,” she finally said. “But I can’t. There’s so much I can do here, so much I still have to learn. Besides,” Grace smiled, “you two can barely keep your hands off each other as it is. Go on, enjoy your second honeymoon.”

“Third,” the Doctor said, just as Rose said “sixth.” He looked at her, askance. “What?” she defended. “You’ve regenerated six times, I’ve had to re-learn you six times!”

“We’ve only been married since my fifth!” he exclaimed.

Rose laughed. “Well if you want to get technical…”

Grace looked on, smiling. “Happy new year, Rose, Doctor.”

Rose gave her a hug. “Happy new year, Grace. It was an honor meeting you.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Grace said as they turned to go.

The Doctor smiled. “No, thank you, doctor,” he said with a smile. The TARDIS door closed behind him.

Grace watched as the TARDIS dematerialized, the sound barely heard over the festivities. She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, then smiled when she saw Garret Brown from the Board of Trustees fall into the punch bowl. Though she would always wonder what would have happened had she said yes, Grace knew that she was meant to be here, on Earth.

With a heart lighter than it was when she first met the Doctor, Grace turned and pulled the closest person at hand into a dance.

~*~

The TARDIS was put into the Vortex as the Doctor fixed the remaining damage done by the Master’s initial hijack and Grace and Lee’s frantic attempts to jump start the TARDIS. Rose had put on a blues record and was humming along to it as she handed him tools and observed him carefully. Unlike her previous Doctor, who mostly seemed tired with life, this new version was bursting with energy and seemed ready for the next adventure. It wasn’t that Rose had been bored- life with the Doctor was anything but uneventful, no matter what they were doing. But she missed running from danger, missed rescuing planets and people from the bad guys, missed the adrenaline rush. When he finally finished he hopped up with a smile. “So, Rose Tyler,” he said, “where to next?”

“Oh, I dunno,” she said with a smile, pleased that her thoughts were confirmed and playing with his cravat. “Preferably somewhere secluded, where there won’t be any interruptions, and I can finally see what’s hiding under those deliciously tight breeches.”

His hands grabbed her waist. “Well, I happen to know just the place. It’s down that corridor, fifth door on the left, and contains a rather comfortable bed, big enough for any activity one deems fit to enjoy.”

Rose pressed a kiss just behind his ear. “Any activity?”

His hands slid to her bum. “Any.”

“Good, cause I’ve been awake for over a day, and I need my sleep,” she sighed, and skipped away.

The Doctor blinked after her in confusion. “Rose? I thought-”

She smiled teasingly over her shoulder, then disappeared through the doors. Seconds later her shirt came flying through the entryway.

He grinned and chased after her.


End file.
